


Fish Boyfriend? In MY Lagoon?

by Tunyahghost (PhantomLore)



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Fluff, M/M, T for swearing, background Bubby/Dr. Coomer but its not the focus, he/himrey and they/themrey, there are other characters but this is going to be Benrey and Gordon mostly, there might be violence later i will update the warnings when that happens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24976795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomLore/pseuds/Tunyahghost
Summary: It's more likely than you'd think.Gordon had recently been transferred from Black Mesa's main base to a tiny lab off of some seaside town, something about higher-than-average amounts of alien gunk being found in the water? Honestly, Gordon figured it was probably just higher-than-average amounts of regular-ass human pollution, but he wasn't going to tell anyone else that. Getting paid full-time to just sit around, occasionally looking at some seawater-chemical interaction in a glass vial? Sign him up! He'd had plenty of worse jobs, this would beeasy.God, another HLVRAI merfic? You bet your ass it is.
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman, nothing yet but eventual
Comments: 541
Kudos: 824





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Before you read this, are you aware Ao3 has a built-in darkmode? It's for both PC and mobile, so maybe if you wanna, like do that, you can! It will take you away from this page though, so you'll have to come back after. (Click Choose Skin at the bottom of almost any page, hit Reversi. Then u can go back or whatever and it'ssss cooooool!)  
> This entire fic will not feature any sexual nsfw content. The crew specifically said pls don't so I will respect those wishes.  
> Hope you like it!!! Thank you :>  
> This fic was inspired by Cat's (Crackheadmossman) fic, [The Ocean Isn’t So Scary](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24329575/)! So big shout out to her (and the discord server) for that <333

"Will that be all today, Mr. Freeman?"

Gordon looked over his purchases on the counter, listing them off in his head (pointless, it was one item). He had really just come to get some soda for his co-worker Dr. Coomer (lord knew he drank it like a fish did water), but he couldn't resist the bag of flamin' hot Cheetos that were strategically placed next to the cash register. Smart marketing technique, damn them. He tossed them onto the counter to sit next to Dr. Coomer's 24 pack of soda. "Yeah, that should be it."

Hearing the rustle of potential food, the dog (that Gordon hadn't noticed previously) poked her golden head up from behind the counter, ears quirked. She was laying in a cushy blue dog bed, a sweet looking golden retriever. The heart-shaped tag on her neck read 'Sunkist'. Gordon smiled at that, he hadn't expected a tiny convenience store in a rinky-dink seaside village to have a dog. He'd have to stop by more often. Then again, lots of small-town businesses were pretty lax on those kinds of things, right? This wasn't like a 7-eleven or anything. It was probably locally-owned.

The cashier nodded, swiping the chips under the scanner. Gordon had recently been transferred from Black Mesa's main base, something about higher-than-average amounts of alien gunk being found in the water? Honestly, Gordon figured it was probably just higher-than-average amounts of regular-ass human pollution, but he wasn't going to tell anyone else that. Getting paid full-time to just sit around, occasionally looking at some seawater-chemical interaction in a glass vial? Sign him up! He'd had plenty of worse jobs, this would be _easy._

The guy bagged up his items (which kind of just made it more difficult to carry, honestly. Was this guy new here?) and handed them to Gordon with a wave. "Have a nice night! Be safe!" _Wow_ , this guy's smile seemed to light up his whole face. He and the dog really were kindred spirits.

"I will, thank you," Gordon responded with a small nod, pushing the door open with his hip. He fumbled with his keys for a moment while walking to his car, before giving up and placing the shopping bag on the hood of his car.

The return drive back to the research site was only about 10 minutes, maybe a little less if he lead-footed the gas pedal a tiny bit. There wasn't exactly a lot of traffic to worry about. Gordon spent most of the drive listening to the fuzzy radio, which warbled in and out of static. There seemed to only be one station within range, and the further he got from town, the harder it was to make out what song was playing. A few minutes out he gave up and switched the radio off completely. Maybe he'd download a few songs to his phone next time, if only to make the drive seem shorter.

-

He pulled up to the facility, if you could even call it that. It wasn't much more than a glorified box, an officey-looking building, which seemed to have been dropped off haphazardly onto the beach, connected to a long metal dock (it kind of resembled a catwalk) that balanced over the water. Gordon didn't exactly know what the dock was made out of, but it looked like it was on stilts, with two levels that lined up with high tide and low tide, roughly. Sometimes you'd have to get down on all fours to dunk the vial in the water, unless you wanted to walk down underneath it on the sand, but nine times out of ten you'd end up with more sand and water in your shoes than you'd think possible. Honestly, it was worth the sore knees to not deal with that bullshit. At least the breeze was nice, and there was some cover from the ocean waves due to a large rock formation which towered out of the water, creating a sort of... gulf? Small bay? Maybe a lagoon. Whatever.

Gordon balanced his shopping bag on one arm and knocked on the door of the lab with his free hand. Yes, he had a key card, but it was in his wallet and he didn't feel like setting everything down to dig it out.

After about a minute, he knocked again, a little more insistently, and he heard what sounded like someone startling in their chair, a vague note of surprise and the scrape of old chair wheels on the floor. Sounded like Dr. Coomer fell asleep again, Gordon wasn't surprised. Paperwork got pretty boring out here.

It had only been, oh, a week? Of monotonously repeated water testing for Gordon to realize that this 'experiment' (if you could even call it that) was going to be a complete waste of money for Black Mesa. Seriously, they were testing ONE site, it would make infinitely more sense to test the water over a large area, or maybe have multiple sample sites. But no. It was as vague as 'test the water at this site every 20 minutes, combine it with _this_ chemical as soon as you can, make sure it's roughly _this_ acidic, check the salinity, etc. etc.'. Good thing Gordon had a book to read, and sudoku on his phone. He wasn't really one for puzzle games, but hey, it passed the time.

The door was slid open, and a sheepish looking Dr. Coomer appeared before him. "Hello, Gordon! I ah, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it seems as though I dozed off a bit while you were gone. Not to worry, though! I grabbed the sample at 12:20 am sharp, and readings are exceedingly normal!" He smiled, showing off his clipboard, which had several numbers written in specific places, and in the notes section, it read 'this water boring as fuck -Dr. C'

Gordon laughed at that, digging in his plastic grocery bag for the soda to hand to Dr. Coomer. He then remembered it was a 24 pack and not individual soda cans, and instead placed it on the counter. Gordon quickly snatched the Cheetos out of the bag before he (or the Cheetos) could get in the way of the good doctor and his soda, and shrugged on his lab coat.

Dr. Coomer thanked him, boisterously, before grabbing the bulky package like it was nothing, carrying it in one hand back into the 'paperwork office' as they called it. They had worked out a system, Gordon would go out and get the water sample, bring it back to the lab. He'd run all the tests on it, repeating the numbers out loud to Dr. Coomer, who would then diligently write them onto the spreadsheet. Any and all comments were usually made by Dr. Coomer, usually along the lines of 'yep, same shit as always' and 'it's water, what do you expect'. At first, Gordon was a little worried about what the higher-ups might think about comments like that, but they hadn't received any grievances or whatever, so maybe Black Mesa really _didn't_ care about this experiment. It wasn't up to Gordon to question the validity of Black Mesa's endeavors, though. He's just here to get paid. And test the water, apparently.

Gordon looked over the various machines in the main room, still holding his bag of Cheetos. He was still pretty new with all this water-testing tech, but most of them were pretty straight forward, put this much water here, and you get some numbers. Maybe add some of this chemical to it. Basic stuff.

He decided he was going to have the chips later, so he put them in a spare empty drawer, checking the time on his watch. Half-past midnight. He could probably fit in a round of sudoku before he had to go out and get the sample again. He was working on solving them faster, but he had only downloaded the app like a week ago, so he was still pretty rusty. He had plenty of time to improve, assuming this... 'experiment' lasted. Were there _actually_ traces of alien materials in the water? Gordon had his doubts.

He had almost finished his sudoku puzzle in the amount of time before the sample, but the clock hit 12:39 and he made a noise of disappointment before clicking his phone off and grabbing some disposable gloves and a little glass vial. He wrestled to put them on as he opened the door leading to the dock (Black Mesa insisted on this specific brand, and they had supplied only medium gloves. He was a large-handed man, dammit).

The sound of the ocean immediately greeted him, as per usual, along with what, alarmingly, sounded like a lot of water being displaced, rapidly. He looked up sharply and saw the end of a white-capped wave of water settle out, right near the end of the dock. That seemed... a little more vigorous than a normal ocean wave making its way to the shore. Gordon approached cautiously, peering into the water from a distance. For a secluded beach, the water had always seemed a bit cloudy and dark, and that was doing him no favors in deducting what exactly had made that. Had some kid jumped off the end? Was it an animal? The latter seemed more likely, considering how far they were from the town. He had to take the sample on time, mysterious-wave or no.

Gordon walked stiffly over to the end of the dock, his eyes not leaving the spot where the movement had been. As he approached, he noticed what seemed to be... color, in the water. It was a reddish hue, surprisingly very bright, concentrated into a single bead-sized orb. Gordon raised an eyebrow at it. That seemed like something worth taking a sample of. He dipped his sample tube in the water, collecting it along with a bit of seawater. At the disturbance, it seemed to dissipate, fading and mixing with the seawater in the vial. Strange. But exciting!

Momentarily distracted, he peered at the vial, digging around in his lab coat pocket for the proper chemical to mix it with. He added the needed drop to the vial, and nothing happened for a moment, so Gordon held it towards the light cast by the lab, and swished it around a little bit. The vial exploded into a dizzying array of lights and colors, switching from bright blues to pinks to greens to colors Gordon didn't even have names for. Gordon stared at it in shock, holding it right up to his eyes, mesmerized. He had never seen this before, what kind of chemical reaction was this?

Gordon was shocked out of his fascination by a grating noise behind him, something which could have generously been called laughter, and he whipped his head around so fast his ponytail hit him in the face, which made matters worse when he stumbled, both held vials dropping from his hands. Gordon swore, and valiantly tried to catch them before they fell out of reach. The seawater-chemical mix (which was still creating a disco-effect) he caught by dumb luck, but the other one he ended up spiking directly onto the metal catwalk, where it shattered instantly. The volatile chemical spilled onto the dock and down into the ocean, where it reacted accordingly, and Gordon was momentarily blinded by the explosion of visual stimuli. The chemical seeped into the ocean, mixing with the cloudy water, extending out and _out_ until the entire bay was lit up, god, he could see straight to the bottom. Gordon squinted through the colors, hoping to god there was nothing living in the water here. That shit had to be mega-toxic. He scanned the water for any wildlife, not seeing any until he focused near the cliffside and -

Oh, _god_ , what was _that_.

A giant serpentine form, who knows how long, practically motionless until Gordon laid eyes on it. Despite the colors assaulting his vision and the distance between where he was and the cliff-side, Gordon swore he saw its acid-yellow eyes narrow, and before Gordon could react, with a quick flick of a tail fin it was hidden behind the rocks.  
Gordon stared after it, breathless. Nevermind what his boss was going to say when he found out Dr. Freeman had just wasted a month's worth of water-testing juice. He had just pissed off some kind of giant sea creature.  
Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now you might be thinking. "Aw man is Benrey going to be the only merperson? But I wanted ________ to be a merperson!" and to that I say to you... ;)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordon tries to tell Dr. Coomer about what exactly happened out on the dock. Hopefully that chemical won't cause too many adverse effects in the future. Also Gordon meets... well, you can probably figure it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the slow start, I'm trying to make up a lot of this world-building I don't want to rush it dkghjg WE'LL GET THERE  
> Enjoy!

"Shit. Fuck. FUCK..."

Gordon wasn't really sure how to react to what he just saw. And did. Because he _did_ just drop who-knows-how-many dollars worth of chemicals into the ecosystem below him. And the liquid was still covering the metal catwalk, and his shoes a little bit, leaving a glistening teal-tinged sheen. It was a little hard to see against the veritable light show happening below him, which seemed to be fading, albeit slowly.

He blinked a few times, contemplating. Faintly he remembered he was still carrying the vial he had managed to save from falling into the depths, and he held it up in one hand to inspect it. Now, it just looked like cloudy old seawater. Well, it was actually still glowing a little, just barely, but the reaction was neutralizing itself quickly.

He shot one last glance over to where he had seen the... shape. In the water. It had ducked behind the outcropping of rock, so it was likely that a), it was still around, watching and/or hiding, or b), it had decided it wanted nothing to with whatever wacky science shenanigans were happening here, and it would choose a new hiding/hunting/sleeping spot. Whatever it was doing here. Gordon _really fucking hoped_ it took the second option, but knowing his luck... that was probably not the case.

He didn't see any sign of it, and by now the seawater beneath him had mostly cleared of the technicolor chemical reaction. It was still just past midnight though, and the water was basically ink black, so it wasn't too much a surprise that he couldn't see it.

Gordon blew a bunch of air out his nose in frustration. Well, no time to lose, he had to get this stuff tested. He speed-walked back up the dock, vial in hand. He kept one eye on where he was walking, and half an ear out for any splashes happening behind him, but he made it back into the lab without incident. Well, without _further_ incident.

He closed the door behind him, yelling for Dr. Coomer to bring the clipboard, as per routine. Again, he heard the sudden fluttering of papers, a swear, and what sounded like a few empty soda cans falling onto the floor. Seriously, all that caffeine and he still takes a nap? Whatever, he's old, he can do what he wants. After he charts down the salinity values of this water sample, that is.

Gordon meets his eyes as Dr. Coomer steps out of the office, and Gordon peeks behind him and sees that yep, soda cans on the floor, a few papers in disarray, but the door is shut quickly, and Dr. Coomer _tap-taps_ a pen on the clipboard expectantly.

Gordon shakes his head good-naturedly, deciding not to rib him about it this time. He starts splitting the vials' contents among the machines, reciting the produced numbers to the other doctor. Surprisingly, a high concentration of sucrose, which is pretty wild. Salinity seemed about the same, pH maybe a bit lower than normal, otherwise unchanged. Dr. Coomer marked all the required numbers down, and in the notes section drew a surprisingly accurate-looking sucrose molecule, along with a question mark. The older scientist flipped it towards Gordon so he could double-check the numbers, and Gordon gave a "Yeah, looks good," along with a thumbs up. They'd done this so many times, this all fell under basic routine.

"Perfect!" Dr. Coomer declared, forging Gordon's signature in the bottom corner of the document. Yeah, this was an official document, but there wasn't exactly anyone around who would rat out Dr. Coomer for saving Gordon a few seconds of fumbling with a clipboard and pen. Most of the signatures found in the base that read 'G. Freeman' were not written by Gordon, and if he was honest with himself, Gordon didn't give a shit. What were they going to do, write him up? Ooo, scary.

Gordon placed the now half-empty test tube onto a test tube rack, grabbing a spare cork to stopper it. He followed it up with a makeshift label (masking tape), scribbling on the date and time. Once the rack was filled at the end of each shift, they'd put it in the storage room, and then a Black Mesa personnel could pick them up at some point. Maybe. There was always the chance that they would just sit in there forever until they ran out of space.

Gordon pulled off his too-small gloves, and made to pull his phone out of his pocket, still deciding whether it was worth telling Coomer about the... incident that happened outside. Two incidents, actually, there was the chemical spill _and_ the unknown shape in the water. He figured he might as well bite the bullet on this one, putting his phone away again.

"Dr. Coomer, uh..." The doctor looked up from his clipboard, on which he was darkening the lines on his sucrose molecule. Fuck, okay, here goes. "So I may have... goofed it up a bit... you know the chemical we normally put in the water before we test it? The uh, primer, or whatever they call it?" Dr. Coomer nodded tentatively, raising an uncertain eyebrow.

Gordon bit his lip, looking out towards the dock. Nothing seemed amiss out there anymore, so there was at least that. He inhaled and said all in a rush, "Imayhavedumpeditintheocean. Itsgonenow. Um. Mybad?".

Dr. Coomer didn't react for a moment, and Gordon waited with bated breath.

"Oh! You mean the bug juice! Oh, Gordon, don't you worry! Come with me, I'll show you, this way." Dr. Coomer didn't seem all that affected by this bad news. Gordon, who had not been expecting this, followed along numbly. Dr. Coomer waved the man over to a nearby wall. Or, at least, what _seemed_ like a normal wall, because Dr. Coomer placed a hand on it, dragging the wall - no, wait, it was a _secret cabinet_. Hidden in the space behind it was another test tube rack, this one seemingly older than the other ones on hand. And, yeah, there were at least a dozen vials filled with the same vaguely-teal liquid as the stuff that was currently sitting in the ocean not 30 feet away from them.

Gordon, who had been expecting maybe a reprimand, getting fired, _some_ sort of consequence at least, stared at the... did Coomer call it 'bug juice'?

What on EARTH did that mean?

"...Bug juice?" He asked as much.

"Oh, its not _actually_ bug juice, haha! Just an old joke between a colleague of mine, I assure you." Dr. Coomer laughed, before sobering for a moment. "But yes, we have plenty here! And it never expires, er, well, at least I don't think it does, so even if you threw a few of them into the ocean, I'm sure Black Mesa wouldn't even notice!"

Gordon let out a nervous puff of laughter. It wasn't a big deal! It was fine! He wasn't going to get fired. What a relief. He looked at the clock on the wall, and Dr. Coomer followed suit, before looking over the clipboard one last time.

"Well, as long as you kept the lid on the bug juice, it'll keep from leaking into the ocean for a solid 40 years! The caps are very sturdy for a reason, you know. It'll probably sink to the ocean bed, and Black Mesa can go and find it when they see fit." He clapped. "Well, I'm off to put in these numbers! If you hear snoring, don't bother me!" And with that, Dr. Coomer marched into what was basically becoming his office, kicking a few soda cans out of the way as he closed the door. Gordon heard him yell through the cheap material, "By the way, did you get new shoes? They're quite lovely! Very shiny!"

Oh. Well. Great, they had more... Bug juice, however it seemed the vials were _not_ designed to be thrown at a metal floor at high speeds. A bit of an oversight on Black Mesa's part, in Gordon's opinion. Hopefully, it wasn't too bad for the environment. Who knows how it would affect the surrounding ecosystem. Honestly, Coomer probably knew, he seemed to be specifically hinting at how it was bad in some capacity. Gordon decided that was now a Black Mesa problem, NOT a Gordon problem. Gordon did nothing wrong. Gordon doesn't know about this bug juice, as far as he was concerned, this vial was the only one he had ever seen! Who's Gordon again?

His eyes flicked towards his watch, he still had some time before the next sample. God, it was unbelievably annoying that the time frame for the samples was a measly twenty minutes. The nearest town was a goddamn twenty-minute trip! After the chemical scare (and subsequent nullifying of said scare by Dr. Coomer), Gordon needed some fresh air.

He stepped out onto the dock, the transition from fluorescent lighting to near darkness making him pause for his vision to adjust. Or at least, that's what normally happened. Gordon was taken by surprise _yet again_ (god, how many surprises in one day?) by the bright colors in the water, which had seemingly returned out of nowhere, however, it wasn't the visual-cacophony of hues that had happened earlier, no. This time, it seemed to follow a path, a long trail of pink, glowing orbs just under the water, which crossed over itself, forming a sort of loop with a bend this way and that. Gordon traced it as he looked, seeing if perhaps it led somewhere, but no, it seemed to be centered right around where he was standing earlier, at the end of the dock. He walked over to it, so he was standing just about in the middle. If it wasn't a path to be followed, was it a shape...?

...Oh. Ha.

It was in the shape of a heart. Like a fucking valentines day card. What the fuck was that about. He had walked right into the middle of it.

Almost as soon as Gordon realized this, the water in a large area around him rippled and churned all around him, and the unnatural current disturbed the pink lights, which dissolved away into the surrounding water.

Gordon's heart leaped into his throat, and he pressed up against the guardrail, quickly digging out his phone to turn on the flashlight. He held it in front of him with shaking hands, flicking it from one patch of bubbles to the next, frantically trying to catch sight of _what is it where is it oh god I'm gonna die where is -_

"hey."

"AUGH!"

A voice was suddenly behind him, and Gordon spun around, flashlight held in front of him like a weapon as he stumbled backward, his back digging into the opposite railing. He held it in one hand with an iron grip, the beam of his flashlight landing on the _thing_ that was resting its... arms on the edge of the dock. It grimaced as the harsh light hit its face, holding up a gray, imperfectly-striped arm to shield its bright eyes. Its fingers were webbed together, the alternating dark and light stripes on its arms turning into more uniform ones between its fingers - no, _claws_. This thing was so pale it looked like a corpse.

"yo, put the fuckin'... light beam away, you're stabbing my eyes. rude as fuck." It squinted against the assault on its eyes, the fins on either side of its face pinned back, before it seemed to notice something on Gordon, blinking as it focused on the phone Gordon was holding like a handgun. It tilted its head, its ear-like fins perked in interest, and opened its mouth - _dear god that's a lot of teeth_ \- to say in a monotone voice,

"hey you got games on that thing?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Top 10 Benrey Yearning Moments  
> I'm gonna try and have Benrey's dialogue be in all lowercase, except maybe in special circumstances, just cause I find it hilarious. Also it's a little easier to tell who's talking.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordon meets... Benrey. For real this time though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi~~~ My friend who doesn't even watch HLVRAI Beta'd this chapter for me :O they are the true mvp thank u  
> Gordon uses 'it' pronouns when describing Benrey at first, that'll change.

"hey. ... you're spacing out on me man."

Gordon was not, in fact, spacing out. To be honest, he was more alert than he'd been in the past few days, gripping the guardrail as he leaned as far away from this thing as physically possible, his arm still extended in front of him holding his shaking phone. The light it cast left a shadow behind the sea creature, and the negative space shivered and wobbled as Gordon tried to hold it steady past his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

"...hellooo? i asked you a- dude calm down, please." It made a face at him, furrowed eyebrows pulling into what looked like mild confusion or concern. It flicked at one of the spiked fins on its head with a free hand, one of the two situated where ears might be, water droplets falling from it onto the catwalk. Gordon was currently busy trying to get his speaking-muscles to function properly. He slowly lowered his phone, his arm growing tired despite the adrenaline thudding through him. He tried to unstick his throat, it took a few tries.

"Um. Wh - what was the. Question? Again?" and his voice was shaking just as much as he was.

The thing rolled its eyes, and then with practically no warning, it pushed off of the surface of the dock with both arms, tail muscles flexing and propelling the creature towards Gordon in a split second. Gordon shrieked in surprise, arms coming up to defend his face as he cowered, slamming his eyes shut. Instead of being pulled into the water, or mauled to death as he expected, all he felt was a pair of wet hands pluck his phone from his numb fingers.

"Wh - hey!" That startled Gordon out of his shock enough for him to open his eyes and attempt a grab at his phone, but the thief had been expecting this, and it had already propelled itself backward a short distance from the catwalk, holding it in its webbed hands. Gordon leaned over the metal railing, swiping and scrabbling to reach it, to no avail, the thing was like an inch out of his reach. It didn't seem all that concerned with how close Gordon's hand was to reaching it, staring down at the glowing screen with squinted eyes. It held its torso just out of the water, elbows grazing the water and Gordon feared for his phone.

"Dude, that's mine you can't just fucking - _don't fucking drop it_ I swear to _God_ if you get it wet - "

It didn't react for a moment, but then it looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. "dude you just threw a bunch of your chemical shit in here like a minute ago, now you're all 'muh muh i don't want my things in the water now'. don't think i forgot about that." It looked back down at his phone.

Gordon's words faltered, surprised at being cut off. He started again, "No I - I _didn't_ think you had forgotten. That was like a half-hour ago, dude if you had forgotten in that short a time I would be, I would be _concerned_ for your health, honestly. That's _mine_ \- " He made a grab for it, his arms stretched over the water, the thing not reacting except to swipe at the screen with a claw. "Dude, don't f - don't get water on it _your hands are all wet_ just let me - "

The thing seemed to be getting more and more annoyed with his words, before it met his gaze again, giving off an air of annoyance. It flexed its throat and Gordon had no time to react before deep blue color flooded his vision, accompanied by a low, drawn-out note.

Gordon sputtered and reeled back from the stuff, phone momentarily forgotten, and the unknown substance seemed to slow down in its path towards him, stopping in the air above the catwalk. It hung suspended in the air, Gordon staring at it in confusion and mild trepidation, breathing hard. This was the same... 'material' as the pink heart he had seen under his feet just a few minutes ago. He glanced warily between the... was it a siren? Some sort of merperson? Between the floating substance and the thing that was still tapping away at his phone, shocked into silence. In the time Gordon had taken to figure out what it was that had almost engulfed his face, the merperson had figured out how the touchscreen worked and was swiping and tapping at the screen with a thumbpad.

"these games all suck what the hell... soduku??? what is that some kind of thinkin, like, puzzle game... don't even have... fuckin'..." it trailed off into unintelligible mumbling, and it tapped on something that lit up the screen, casting more light on its face, Gordon couldn't see it but he'd hazard a guess that it had opened up an app.

"Please don't download anything the service out here _sucks ass_ I'm going to be charged like a million dollars," Gordon said, still trying to catch his breath.

Its unsettling eyes flicked towards him, then back at the screen. "hmmmmmm. _mmmmmm_." its hand stilled against the screen, thinking. It looked back at Gordon, who couldn't really do much except stare back at it.

It frowned, flipping the phone around in its hand precariously, letting out a breath and a "fine. ruin my fun," as it held it out for Gordon to take back. "can't fucking believe this. no fun allowed police."

Gordon tentatively reached out to take his phone back, and the creature pulled it just out of his reach, but then it held it out for him again, and he reached for it - and it did it again. Fucker.

"Dammit - stop, give it - " Gordon said, reaching out despite himself. It was hard not to give in to the teasing. Its face split into a mischievous grin, showing off those sharp, jagged yellow teeth. Gordon flinched, pulling his arm back, suddenly reminded of what exactly he was bantering with here. No matter how annoying it was, it could probably still eat him.

It let out two breaths of harsh laughter, before tossing his phone towards him haphazardly. Gordon swore, fumbling to catch it as it somersaulted in the air. It landed in his hands and he inspected it for water damage, the screen was a little damp but otherwise, it still functioned. He shot a glare at the thing, which was still grinning at him smugly. Bastard.

"did you get my message?" It asked, seemingly out of nowhere. Gordon blinked at the non-sequitur, thinking back on the last few minutes, then the last few days, drawing a blank. Gordon shook his head slightly, at a loss.

It smacked its lips at him, looking away with a frown, tail flicking in what Gordon could safely assume was irritation. Gordon took a moment to really look at it, this creature in front of him.

Despite the vaguely human-shaped top half of the creature, and how it possessed the right amount of limbs in just about the right places, it really couldn't be mistaken for a human. For one, its base color was an ashy gray, not to mention the horizontal bands wrapped around it, darker gray bordered by an almost-white. Its stomach and chest were paler, as well as its hands and underarms. The only color seemed to be the practically-glowing eyes, the unnatural yellow sclera surrounding a slit pupil. Even its hair was jet black, cascading around its shoulders in a sopping, ratty mess, reflecting no light whatsoever. Gordon vaguely wondered if it got in the way while swimming. One of the stripes was located on its face, creating the impression of a shadow across both eyes, accentuating their brightness further.

It didn't seem to have ears, instead behind each cheekbone was a large fin, resembling a spiked, grey mottled fan, which flared and twitched occasionally.

It had similar looking fins on its elbows, albeit smaller, as well as two on its hips, which were just visible under the waterline. It tread water lazily with its tail, a long, striped thing that stretched on for a ways, tapering off before flaring out in a similar style to some of the other fins it had. That thing was long, Gordon couldn't tell exactly how long but considering how much water was being moved at once earlier it had to be, what, 20 feet? Longer?

He couldn't see its dorsal fin completely from this angle, but the parts of it that he _could_ see seemed to be segmented into several long spines, mostly situated the above the base of the tail, but below the neck. They were long enough that he could see them even with the thing's broad shoulders in the way. Situated below the vertical row of spines was another, less spiky fin, with more of a rounded shape... were the spines the dorsal fin? Or was this one it? The fins seemed to fall under two categories: spiky as fuck, or more of a traditional-looking one that looked more suited to pushing water. It had to be strong, too. The tail alone was solid muscle, probably heavy as fuck. The rest of it seemed similarly powerful, maybe a bit more on the stocky side up top. It was a strange dichotomy, Gordon thought to himself, staring at the solid arms that were crossed in front of him.

The creature stooped lower in the water, leaning forward, raising an eyebrow at him. "like what you see?" Gordon flinched, tightening his hold on his phone. Oops, guess he was staring. Gordon hoped his blush wasn't too obvious in the dark. It tilted its head at him, baring teeth, one side fan tilted higher than the other. It seemed to be enjoying his discomfort. Bastard.

"What kind of... thing are you? Like what species?" Gordon asked, rather bluntly in retrospect, trying to distract from how he was basically ogling this sea monster. He could feel his face getting redder. He was a scientist, dammit! He wasn't trying to be creepy, this was, like, a scientific discovery in the making!

"wowww, not even going to ask me for my name first? so forward of youuu, damn..."

Gordon sputtered for a moment, before attempting to salvage the situation, stuttering, "Ok, first off, I wasn't sure if you even HAD a name, and - "

"benry." It interrupted, picking at its teeth with a claw-tipped finger.

"B. Benrey?" Gordon tried.

"benry."

Gordon blinked. "...Benrey." He repeated. That's what he said, right? Was he missing something?

"you're saying it wrong. there's no e in there."

"...What does that even mean, I'm saying it the same way you are. Benrey. We're literally saying the exact same thing!" He tried again, he could not hear a difference whatsoever.

It rolled its eyes at him. Rude. "now you gotta to tell me your name, it's manners, gr... grondon. grordos. g. grantinnn."

God, this thing was insufferable. Maybe if he played nice it would be a little more bearable. "My name is _Gordon_. Not whatever you just said. Gordon Freeman. Where did you even hear my name, anyway? There's like nobody out here but me and Coomer. And he doesn't come out here very much."

It - _Benrey_ didn't seem to register what he said, still for a moment. The moment stretched on for way too long, until it was broken with a confused "whuh?".

Gordon pushed down his irritation, asking his earlier question again. "What species of, like, fish are you? I've never seen markings in this color." Or spines, for that matter. He motioned towards Benrey's general direction, who kind of gave themselves a once over, flipping their hands over and inspecting both sides.

"dude i dont fuckin' know im like a stripe - banded, uh. mottled... what species are _you_ , huh? dont ask rude questions. god. mind your business, maybe, how about that."

Gordon threw his hands up, exasperated. This was going nowhere. His watch beeped, apparently it was 12:59 already. He patted down his lab coat for a spare vial, coming up empty. He muttered 'Shit', before turning and jogging back towards the building. Apparently, the lab coat pockets weren't meant to carry phones, because the bouncing motion dislodged it from his lab coat pocket, and Gordon had only about enough time to say "SHIT" out loud before it clattered on the metal floor, bouncing once and off into -

Benrey lunged forward with a loud _swoosh_ of displaced seawater, powerful tail suddenly pushed into action, one hand extended to catch the phone before it hit the water. They caught it easily, this time handing it back to Gordon with no fuss.

"dude you're worried about ME getting your thing wet? how about you not be such a... a little clumsy boy? huh? check yourself before y - . before you fuckin' insult me about getting a little water on your stupid knock-off psp. it _sucks_ it doesn't even have. like tetris."

Gordon refrained from mentioning the fact that Tetris was, in fact, considered a puzzle game, just like 'soduku', (and how did Benrey know about PSPs, anyway?) and instead decided to not waste any more time, fumbling with the door for a moment. He managed to click it open and grab one of the dozens of vials on the nearest shelf, along with, oh hey, Dr. Coomer left out a vial of... bug juice. Water primer. Honestly bug juice was a way better name, he was going to call it that from now on. Gordon foregoed grabbing some gloves, he'd just make sure not to dip his hands in the water.

He walked back out onto the dock, making his way to the end. Benrey had followed Gordon to the door, and now followed him back, their movements slow and easy. Gordon paid him no mind, he was still a little uneasy about them being so close to him, but he figured if Benrey was going to hurt him, they probably would have done so already. He leaned down, filling the vial carefully while trying to keep his fingers from entering the water. The vials weren't that big, it was kind of hard to keep a grip on it while holding it like that. Benrey watched him silently, a bored expression as they approached. Then before Gordon could react, Benrey snatched it right out of his hand, losing most of the sample and holding it out of Gordon's reach.

"FUCKING - dude, _I need to take the sample on time_ fucking _stop_ being a little shit - "

Benrey spit in the vial.

Gordon stuttered to a stop. Whatever he was expecting, it wasn't _that_. "DUDE. Are you kidding me, I need - "

"test it." Benrey wiped their mouth with their free arm, holding it out for Gordon to take back.

Gordon was getting fucking _tired_ of being interrupted. He plucked it out of Benrey's grip with more force than strictly necessary. "Test _what_. Your fucking. Gross ass mer-spit?"

"yeah do it it'll be funny."

"Benrey. I'm here to test _seawater,_ not your stupid _mutant salivary glands_."

"do itttt i dare you. i dare you. trust me."

Gordon did _not_ trust them, as a matter of fact. He gave the creature a frustrated look, teeth gritted. Benrey reached out slowly to take the vial again, but Gordon let out an explosive sigh and turned around to go and _test the fucking spit, apparently_.

Benrey called after him, hands cupped around their mouth, "YOU GOTTA PUT THE BUG JUICE IN IT FIRST DON'T FORGET. DON'T FORGET THAT PART OKAY."

"YEAH, I GOT IT. SHUT UP." Gordon responded, not turning around. He heard what sounded like Benrey saying "rude" but... garbled, he must have sunk back into the water.

If Benrey was going to bug him until the end of his shift at 8 in the morning, it was going to be a _long fucking night_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote Sudoku wrong at some point in this and thought "oh that's very Benrey" so i kept it djkgh  
> (Benrey doesn't have the helmet yet but he will get it at some point. it'll be good i swear.)  
> (and. I'm using he/them pronouns for Benrey because i like that. I make the rules here!!! this MY town!)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Benrey and Gordon shenanigans, after Gordon does some tests on the Mer-spit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, who ordered the "Benrey bugging Gordon relentlessly", I hope you enjoy.  
> 

Gordon swished the water-spit concoction around in the tube. It didn't seem to be mixing, Gordon's best guess being that Benrey's saliva was too dense. Gordon peered at it as it sunk to the bottom of the vial, his thoughts a mix of disgust and curiosity at the same time.

"duuude put the chemical innit i want to see it get all glowy 'n shit, that's the best part."

Gordon lowered the vial, looking back over his shoulder towards the dock just outside the door. Gordon was standing in the building itself, but Benrey didn't seem to want to leave him alone. The merperson was resting some of their weight on the platform, leaning on the dock with their forearms supporting them. Gordon asked, "Is it just your spit that makes it... 'all glowy'? Why did the entire bay light up like it did earlier? It was _bright_ , dude."

Gordon frowned at the sample in his hands. At this high of a concentration, would it just explode?

"yeah i _know_ it was bright. i was there, dumbass. nah just... put some in it, and before you put it in the uh. beepy box. make sure it's not glowy anymore."

... Funny, Dr. Coomer had said something similar, kind of. Dr. Coomer didn't know about the... 'glowy' properties, but he _did_ insist that Gordon make sure that after adding the primer to it, he shook it or swished it around. Now that he thought about it, that hadn't been in the guideline he had been given. Not outright, at least. He couldn't start adding _more_ variables, though, not when that might have been the correct way to do things. He was already testing _merperson spit_ instead of seawater, but he was too damn curious for his own good. Gordon dripped some of the 'bug juice' into the vial, a single drop that almost missed entirely when Benrey hissed "don't fuck up" rather suddenly, another attempt to get under his nerves. Ugh.

As soon as it hit the sample water it reacted, flaring into a more localized version of the light show from earlier. Benrey let out an "oooooooo," in monotone awe, it almost sounded sarcastic, and when the chemical reached the bottom, the saliva burst into even more colors. Benrey followed up with an "aaaaaaahhh," in a slightly less bored tone, but just barely.

Gordon tilted it around, watching from different angles as it moved from neon color to neon color, before it settled on a pinkish hue, the same as the giant pink heart he had seen earlier in the water surrounding the dock. Huh. Gordon shook it a bit more, and the color began fading from an eye-searing glow to a pastel, and then soon it had no trace of the color at all.

Wait. Gordon held it up to his face. It appeared as though Benrey's spit was completely neutralized as well, the glob nowhere in sight. For all anyone else could tell, Gordon was holding regular-ass seawater.

"Hey - you seem to know how this stuff works, which is kind of boggling my mind a little bit. Why's it doing that?" Gordon looked from the vial to Benrey, who was scratching under his chin, not paying attention. Figures. Gordon squinted at the sample again, looking down at it.

All the other times he had tested the water on this beach, the chemical would have no reaction visible to the human eye, the slight teal color being absorbed and dispersed by the rest of the sample. Gordon was very interested in finding out what was making it react like this. The obvious answer was the mer-spit, but what in particular? What chemical? What compound?

He could maybe ask Dr. Coomer, but Gordon was... hesitant to do so. Dr. Coomer, a veritable sponge for information, would definitely be suspicious, and sure, Gordon might _work_ for Black Mesa, but that didn't mean that he _trusted_ the mega-corporation. He wasn't sure if he could trust Dr. Coomer to let something slip by accident. Where would that put Benrey?

"ok it's done, you can test it now." Benrey said, interrupting Gordon's musings. Gordon heard Dr. Coomer shuffling some papers in the other room, and Benrey heard it too, one of the fins on their head reacting at the noise, twitching. The merperson pointed over his shoulder, mumbling, "imma split for a minute, i'll be back tho, don't miss me too much." Benrey didn't wait for a response, pulling themselves back into the water with a little splash, and with a strong beat of their tail, they were swallowed by the darkness.

Gordon watched them swim out of sight, into the murky depths. Alright, time to get Dr. Coomer.

This time, Dr. Coomer was ready, and together they logged the numbers quickly. And yeah, it seemed as though the chemical reaction (and Benrey's spit) hadn't effected the numbers at all, really. Except, again, the high concentration of glucose and the acidity being lower than normal. Dr. Coomer wrote this all down diligently, seemingly unaffected by the repeating pattern of numbers as before. Gordon didn't say anything on the matter, and almost as soon as Dr. Coomer disappeared into his office with a parting wave, Benrey resurfaced again, shaking their head to get their hair out of their face. They grumbled a bit as it stuck to their forehead, and with an irritated claw, they swiped it out of their eyes. Some made it into their mouth, and they spluttered a little but seemed more or less resigned to it. With hair that long, it was practically unavoidable.

Gordon leaned back against the counter-top and thought of something. "Do you ever cut your hair? It looks like it gets in the way a bunch." Not to mention it was long as fuck, and knotted to hell.

Benrey frowned at him, still trying to get the hair out of their mouth. "wh. no why would - " They paused, then mumbled, "nothin' sharp enough. all your uhh. scissors and things just get tangled. hurts. shit sucks bro."

Gordon hummed in response. Most likely any scissors found in the ocean would be rusted and old, and Benrey's hair looked like a nightmare to deal with even without those handicaps. "I might have something, hold on." Did he have a spare ponytail holder somewhere? He definitely had one in his car, but there had to be one in the lab, probably. He didn't trust Benrey to not decimate the lab if he left them alone. They'd probably splash a bunch of water in here, knowing the merperson. These machines had to be expensive, he couldn't have that.

Gordon pushed off the counter, opening the nearest drawer, which was empty except for the Cheetos, which rustled a bit. If Benrey noticed, they didn't say anything. Gordon closed the drawer, opened the one below it, ah, there's one. Gordon grabbed the blue ponytail holder, reflexively putting it on his wrist. He walked back over towards Benrey, taking it off his wrist again and holding it out for the merperson, who stared blankly at it.

"how'sat supposed to cut my hair. Gordon doesn't even know what a scissors is? oof. bummer."

Gordon shook the offending thing in Benrey's general direction, "No, you can put your hair up. Like mine. It won't get in your face as much." He was 99% sure Benrey was just fucking with him, but it was a little hard to tell.

Benrey seemed to contemplate this, and continued to look at the small colored band. After a few too many seconds of nothing happening, they reached out and took it. They stretched it in their clawed hands, testing it. They then dunked it in the water, and then put it to their mouth.

Gordon reached out on instinct to grab it back (his son Joshua was known to put things in his mouth that didn't go there, it didn't take long to develop the 'get-that-out-of-your-mouth' reflex) but Benrey bared his teeth smugly at him, holding the band in their mouth as they used both hands to get their hair in order. Ah, so they were just being annoying. Of course.

It would have been easier if one of them had brushed it out first, but Gordon didn't feel like running all the way to his car to get it, and he didn't _really_ trust Benrey not to just take it and swim off. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility that the merperson would just pick out all the bristles and give back a naked brush.

Benrey wrestled with their own hair, the knots and tangles along with the saltwater buildup doing them no favors. They weren't doing it with much care, tugging and pulling, and that _had_ to hurt, right? The strands came almost all the way down to their hips, and they held it all in one fist while attempting to force the ponytail holder on the end of it. It seemed as though they had a vague idea of how to do it. Maybe they just hadn't done this in a while.

Benrey eventually got it on, but while Gordon's was pulled tight at the base of his skull, Benrey didn't bother. Instead, they pulled it up a ways, and shrugged, leaving it about halfway up the length of their hair, just under their shoulders. Whatever, it would do the job. The blue stood out against the black mass of hair, the only sliver of color on Benrey besides their eyes. Benrey's pupils were bigger than before, more rounded then the thin vertical lines they had been, but as Benrey looked back at Gordon they grimaced, squinting their eyes against the lights of the lab behind him. It was fascinating to watch them change size so drastically in so little time.

Benrey tilted their head at him, not breaking eye contact. "you get caught staring again?" They placed their hands on their hips in what was probably supposed to be an accusatory fashion.

Gordon snorted, shaking his head. "Nah. _You're welcome_ , by the way." He added offhandedly, wondering if the merperson would pick up the hint.

"whuh? oh." Benrey held a hand to their lopsided ponytail, looking like he just remembered it was there. "thanks, i guess."

Gordon figured that was the most he was going to get. He was reminded of the Cheetos again, and figured now was as good a time as any to bust them out. He moved over to the drawer that held them grabbing them and opening it in one quick motion.

Benrey's headfins raised at the rustling noise, and the _pop_ from the vacuum-sealed bag made them flick backward. Benrey inhaled loudly through his nose (did he have a good sense of smell?), squinting at the packaging that was obscured by Gordon's hands. "what'sat. some sort of. like. human food. give me some."

Gordon let out an incredulous breath of laughter. "They're the 'flamin' hot' ones," He did air-quotes for emphasis. "Don't come crying to me when your mouth starts burning." Truth be told they weren't that spicy at all, but he had no idea what Benrey normally ate, and he figured they didn't exactly grow hot peppers in the ocean.

Benrey's eyebrows drew into a frown, pointing at them. "they can't be hot, you're holding them in your hands. why would they be hot for me and not you. they're not even flaming. don't lie that's like so rude."

"No, like - not _hot_ hot, like. Spicy hot. You know the chemical, uh... capsaicin? It's in, like, peppers and shit?"

Benrey rolled their eyes, holding out a clawed, wet hand. Gordon figured they could just figure it out, whatever. He grabbed one out of the bag and placed it gingerly in Benrey's awaiting hand, mindful of the sharp tips. The Cheeto immediately absorbed some of the droplets of seawater collected on Benrey's hand. No way was he letting them stick their hand in the bag. Soggy Cheetos? No thank you. Not to mention they might just tear the bag up with those claws.

Benrey tried to make a grab at the bag, but Gordon had been expecting this, and they missed by a mile. They pouted for a moment, but took the one Cheeto and bit it in half, crunching loudly. Gordon took one of his own, popping it in his mouth. Benrey was getting an obnoxious amount of orange crumbs all in the surrounding water. Gordon couldn't find it in himself to care, the testing site was compromised enough with the enigma that was Benrey hanging around. The machines could handle a few Cheeto crumbs.

It took a moment for the spice to kick in, and Gordon watched, mildly interested in how Benrey would handle it. Benrey chewed on the other half of the Cheeto, then it seemed to hit them, their eyebrows raising. They chewed, stopped, and started up again, back and forth. The merperson blinked rapidly for a moment, processing the taste, their pupils growing wide. Gordon couldn't help smiling at this reaction.

Benrey's pupils seemed to grow and grow, _wow_ they took up most of their eyes, making them resemble a pair of thin golden rings. They opened their mouth, coming to a conclusion of some sort.

"cap-say-sin." was apparently what they came up with, sounding it out. Oh, so they _were_ listening earlier. They just didn't believe him.

"You good, man?" Gordon laughed nervously, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Knowing his luck, anything number of things could come from this.

Gordon's words seemed to shake them out of it, and Benrey's eyes snapped to the aluminum bag. Gordon could already tell what was coming and attempted to twist away, holding the bag above his head. It seemed he was too slow, as Benrey shot out of the water, eyes locked on their target. They breached the water, grabbing it out of his hand in a tight fist ( _crunch_ went the Cheetos. Damn it.), but ended up slamming most of their weight on the dock with a loud _clang_ , almost on top of Gordon, who stumbled. The dock rattled and shook, the shock-wave making it to the end and back again.

" _You're gonna fucking break the dock!_ " Gordon yelled, his teeth rattling as the platform wiggled precariously.

Benrey didn't make any move to get off of the catwalk, grinning. "mine now." They said, and they leaned back and dumped the crushed contents of the bag into their mouth. It opened _way_ farther than Gordon was expecting, holy shit, did they unhinge their jaw for that? Despite the sheer size of Benrey's mouth, a lot of the Cheetos didn't even make it in there, landing in the water and on the dock, creating a halo of orange crumbs around Benrey's head.

Gordon let out a defeated sigh. "Dude, those were _mine_. I got like, _one_ Cheeto out of that whole bag." He whined.

Benrey sprawled out on their back, munching absently. They seemed to be having some trouble chewing on them, probably due to the fact that their teeth were mostly canines and not molars. Their tail, while partially laid out on the dock, was still mostly in the water, and it swished around. A lazy smile formed on Benrey's face as they stared at the sky, content. What a bastard.

Gordon threw his hands in the air, turning away. "I'm going back inside, fuck you. I'm tired of being ignored."

This seemed to affect them, because Benrey's head shot up off of the metal catwalk, crumbs cascading around them. They reached a hand out with a dramatic "nooooo... wait, c'mon..." But Gordon was too pissed off to listen, and he slammed the door behind him.

Gordon scrubbed a hand down his face, more frustrated then genuinely angry. He'd gone all the way to the store for those! He'd spent _an entire dollar_ on them! Ugh.

He just needed a moment, maybe he'd play Sudoku for a minute to calm down. Dammit, now he had _no_ Cheetos. Try to be nice _one time_ , and Benrey walks all over him. Well, they can't walk, they don't have legs. Whatever.

Maybe he'd snag a soda from Dr. Coomer, assuming there was any left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was having trouble finding a spot to end this one so. Gordon's like a little mad but he'll get over it.  
> I'm using the term ponytail holder INSTEAD of hair tie because I think Gordon would use that term even though I find it clunky as fuck.  
> 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordon runs into Bubby, and someone else again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SHOUTOUT to Cat for recommending google docs and saving me from my stupid plain text coding app I was using holy shit never again.  
> ok thank you I love you all

Gordon tapped away at his sudoku, sitting in one of the chairs found in the main lab room. He’d slowly been getting faster at it over the last few hours, only pausing his game to march outside, grab the water sample, and march back in. Speaking of, Gordon clicked off his phone to do just that. He peeked out the door leading to the dock, seeing no sign of Benrey.

Benrey had attempted to bug him the first few times, making irritating noises, slapping the dock with his tail, and trying to bait Gordon into a conversation. Gordon refused to acknowledge him out of spite, walking right past him to the end of the dock. Yeah, it was a little petty, but the merperson _had_ stolen and eaten all of Gordon’s snacks right in front of him, with seemingly no remorse.

After a few repeats of this pattern, Benrey seemed to get the hint, pouting at the man and taking his leave. Not before splashing Gordon with a giant ass wave of water, though. The wake from their tail hitting the water was _completely_ unnecessary, but it did the job, soaking Gordon to the bone. He should have maybe expected such a reaction, but he didn’t, and now he had a mouthful of seawater and some kelp in his hair. Oh, and his shoes were glowing. It seemed the bug juice was still potent even after being exposed to the air for several hours. Lovely. Gordon hoped it wouldn’t stain. His only saving grace was that his phone somehow survived the torrent of water.

It seemed as though Benrey just couldn’t handle a taste of his own medicine, and wanted Gordon to suffer tenfold. Whatever, Gordon wasn’t here to make friends. Benrey would probably come back to bug him again at some point, regrettably.

The following samples he took still ended up glowing in response to the chemical, but as the night went on, the reactions became less and less. Eventually, there seemed to be none of the bright colors appearing at all. Gordon made an educated guess and assumed that since Benrey had left, the seawater was returning to normal again.

The sun slowly made its way out from beyond the shoreline, reminding the scientist that his shift would be over soon. He couldn’t see the sun itself from the dock, which stood higher and higher against the tide lowering. The cliff-face situated in the water blocked most of the sunlight directly, but the beams of light still made its way around it, the sky lighting up with soft pinks and yellows.

Gordon enjoyed watching the sunrise in the morning. Back at Black Mesa, he spent most of his day underground, far from any natural light, so having the opportunity to see such a beautiful sunrise while on shift was… nice. Peaceful. Even after he became used to the monotony of this job, the sunrise was always something to look forward to.

Gordon stretched, raising his arms above his head, and cracked his neck from side to side. Only a little while left. He’d heard Dr. Coomer typing away at his computer for a decent portion of the night, but for the most part, didn’t disturb him. Last time he’d tried making conversation during a shift, Dr. Coomer had launched into an in-depth retelling of the latest date he’d gone on with his husband. Gordon was quick to assure them that yes, he was very happy for them both, but they’d ended up losing track of time and having to scramble to get the paperwork submitted on time, and that was kind of something worth avoiding. Work first, small talk later.

Gordon had met Coomer’s husband shortly after being reassigned, as Bubby was the one who drove Dr. Coomer to and from work every day. Gordon wasn’t quite sure what to make of the man. He couldn’t pin down exactly why, but it was as if he gave off an… unsettling aura, or something.

He’d probably say hi to him at the end of his shift, Gordon didn’t want to give off a bad impression. He didn’t particularly care about Bubby’s opinion of him, but he’d be polite for Coomer’s sake.

Bubby (if that was even his real name) was a bit odd, to say the least. He was quick to get snappy with Gordon, but Dr. Coomer was often able to calm him down with a gentle word, or a shared look between them. They’d evidently known each other for a long time, as Bubby (no matter how adamant he was a moment before) would relent, still angry but keeping a handle on his temper, at least in the presence of his husband.

He had sharp, intelligent eyes (although they could be hard to spot behind his thick glasses), and had a major case of resting bitch face. It was very difficult to catch him off guard, the man always aware of what was going on around him. Any move Gordon made seemed to catch his attention immediately. He was pretty sure he had seen Dr. Coomer knock a porcelain mug off a table once, and Bubby had caught it and replaced it without a second thought. Little things like that just seemed to stick out to Gordon. He was also an endless bucket of sass, quick to poke fun at Gordon even though they weren’t too well acquainted, having just met about a week ago.

Oh, and he drove like a _madman_.

Gordon’s ears picked up the sound of an engine roaring from down the road, that was probably him now. Even through the walls of the lab (which admittedly, weren’t that good at insulating), the rumbling carried through easily. Gordon put his phone away, it was just about time to go, might as well pack up. He peeled off his damp lab coat, hanging it up to dry in the closet nearest the door. It would probably end up stiff with the salt left behind by the evaporating seawater, but whatever, he wasn’t about to bring it home and wash it himself. Damn that fish.

Gordon fished around in his pockets for his keys and looked out the window towards the road.

A cloud of dust appeared at the top of the road, noisily speeding its way towards the lab. The clock read 7:43 in the morning, it seemed he was a bit early today. He’d probably just chat with Dr. Coomer until then, and the two of them were fine to test the water one last time, Gordon could afford to skip out early.

He heard the car pull up in front of the lab, and the engine slowing to a stop. Bubby’s quick footsteps followed, and the man pulled open the door of the building, coming face to face with Gordon. The slight change in air pressure caused the air to shift, chilling Gordon, who was still recovering from being drenched by Benrey earlier. Bubby blinked at him, arms tightening their hold on several folders stuffed with paper. He raised an eyebrow at Gordon still in his wet clothing, and his upper lip pulled up into a sort of smirk. Sarcastic comment incoming. “What, did you fall in or something?”

“Ha, ha.” Gordon deadpanned, rolling his eyes and stepping aside. “What’s that you got there? Lab stuff?”

Bubby shuffled them around in his arms. “It’s Dr. Coomer’s, he left some work shit at home, said he wouldn’t need it ‘til I came to pick him up later. Nosey. You heading off early?”

“Yeah, figured I’d get this,” He gestured to himself, his clothes in particular, “all in the wash as soon as possible. Don’t want to be smelling like seawater any longer than necessary.”

Bubby scoffed, “Maybe you shouldn’t have _fallen in_ then, stupid. You falling asleep on the job? Not interesting enough for you?” He waved him off, “Trust me, you get used to stinking like algae and salt after, like, a month. It’s not that bad.” With that, he repositioned his armful of papers, skirting around the chairs in the lab towards the paperwork office.

“I didn’t _fall in_ , I just…” Bubby didn’t pause at Gordon’s objection, rapping on the office door twice in quick succession. He didn’t wait for a response, pulling it open, slipping inside and closing it behind him in one fluid motion.

Gordon threw his hands up in the air, but the drama was lost on Bubby who was no longer in the room. He shook his head and decided he’d been here long enough for one day.

Gordon stepped outside, patting his pockets to make sure he had everything, phone, wallet, keys, yup, all there.

He’d only just put his key into the car door when he heard a faint noise (singing?) coming from somewhere behind him. He turned towards it, finding himself looking at the beach. In the hours since midnight, the water had lowered with the tide, dotting the sand with tide pools big and small. They often had critters hiding in them, waiting for the tide to come back before they warmed up too much, or dried out completely. Nothing immediately jumped out at him.

While most of the beach was visible, there was a section farther away from the lab and the main road that was impossible to see from where he was standing. It was a section of rock that created a sort-of divider between what Gordon could see from the lab, and a part that was only accessible through low tide, otherwise being flooded by seawater. Gordon was still trying to puzzle out what had made the noise, or at least where it was coming from, when -

Oh my _god_ was that… some floaty voice-orbs over there? Gordon squinted at the lights he could see which _just_ barely cleared the natural rock divider. As he looked at them, he watched the lights fade a bit, only for the noise to start up again, and more would float up to replace them. That was probably Benrey again, goddamnit. If they were anywhere, they were probably on the other side of the rocks. Was he trying to get Gordon’s attention? Or maybe something (or someone) else’s?

“Benrey?” Gordon called, tentatively.

The bubbles being sung upwards in a steady line were disrupted, the noise rising in pitch and volume sharply before falling silent. The last orbs to appear were a slightly lighter color than the rest. Gordon was dying to know the science behind it.

He picked his way over to it, avoiding wet spots on the sand as well as puddles and slippery rocks. The shoes he wore were still soaked (thanks to Benrey, again), and they didn’t find purchase on a particularly smooth rock, causing one foot to slip off. He flailed his arms enough to save himself from falling over completely, but he was now standing with one foot in a tide pool. Well, it wasn’t as if his shoes could get any wetter. Gordon shook the water out of his shoe, dislodging some seaweed, and continued. He looked up after rounding the divider, and _ugh._ Seriously.

Benrey was sitting (if that was the correct term) in a shallow tide pool, one that definitely wasn’t meant to hold a creature of their size. He looked like a kid in a bathtub. A scaly, stinky merperson of a kid. Almost the entirety of their tail was sprawled out on the sand, the only part actually in the tide pool being, well, his ass. He was fiddling with some of the spines on his left elbow, before noticing Gordon. He looked almost surprised, but was quick to recover, giving him a lazy wave. Gordon crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at him, silently demanding an explanation. Were they trying to waste his time, making him walk all the way over here just to chat?

“heyyy,” Benrey crooned, smiling coyly, “it’s this guy, my favorite. you made it over here, that’s cool. i’m guessing you saw my uhh... sweet voice signal?” They pointed upwards, the mess of colorful notes creating a sort of halo around the both of them. At least they weren't pink this time. “miss me already? i said you would.” He tapped the sand next to him, which gave a wet _slap_ noise. “we could sit n’ watch the sun come out. take a sit.”

The man pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperated already. Benrey seemed to be avoiding the elephant in the room, which from as far as Gordon could tell, was that Benrey was beached with the tide going out. 

“Do you not... need water to live? If you stay there you’re gonna dry up when the sun comes out for real, dude.”

Benrey _hmmed_ , looking down at his predicament. He seemed to notice the very little water they were sitting in, as well as the rising sun. “yeahhh that might be a problem. m’ a little stuck here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure he's fine.  
> ALSO [I MADE ART](https://tunascribbles.tumblr.com/post/622759023256731648/) IF YOU WANNA SEE WHAT MER!BENREY LOOKS LIKE  
> this didn't get Beta'd because my friend was having a nap and they were sleeping and also they were unconscious  
> and uhh here's Bubby sorry if he's like not mean enough I did my best I was stuck on him for like a million years and then his part didn't even end up being very long djhgh


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benrey Ultimate Dumb Moments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY QUICK WARNING: Mild body horror. It's not violence-related and it's not graphic imo but please b safe!!!  
> TY MY FRIEND FOR BETA-ING ILYYY  
> I had fun with this chapter but holy god it took forever to write and I don't know why

“So… you’re saying you _beached yourself._ By mistake. How did you _beach yourself_ by mistake?”

Gordon was getting a headache. They both stood a decent ways away from the surf, which was still on its way out to low tide. Benrey didn’t seem to be _trapped_ , per se, but it seemed as though he was incapable of dragging his heavy-as-fuck tail _all the way_ back into the bay. Gordon was _trying_ to puzzle out how this situation happened in the first place, but Benrey was being less than helpful, as usual.

“hey. listen. don’t worry about it okay.” The merperson waved a hand at him, in a sort-of _there, there_ motion, as if he was trying to pat him on the shoulder despite the space between them. It might have been Benrey trying to reassure him, but if anything this just annoyed Gordon more.

“No, _you_ listen,” He snapped, motioning behind him at the ocean receding. He stomped towards Benrey, his shoes _squelch, squelch, squelching_ against the wet sand. So much for being intimidating. He jabbed a thumb at himself. “ _I’m_ trying to help you out, and the longer you spend wasting time, the harder it’s going to be for me to drag your sorry ass into the ocean. The least _you_ can do,” He pointed a finger in Benrey’s face, “Is explain to me how you got yourself in this stupid predicament!”

Benrey’s mouth split into a toothy grin, and only then did Gordon realize how close he was to having a finger bitten off. Gordon didn’t have the chance to pull his hand away in time before they leaned forward, Gordon’s heart spiking with adrenaline as Benrey -

Placed a gentle kiss on the tip of his finger with an obnoxiously loud _smooch_ noise.

Gordon faltered, words dying on his tongue. He looked concernedly at his finger, then at Benrey, who had already become distracted, focused on Gordon’s bangs that were loose from his ponytail.

Gordon wiped his hand on his shirt. “I think you have problems, dude.”

Benrey huffed. “duuuude are you gonna help me or not? drying out on land is boring as fuck, man. can’t even like. enjoy the sun cause it just feels like burning.”

“ _You just kissed me on the hand._ ” He was glad to have kept his fingers, but _what the hell_.

“what. no. huh? you can’t prove anything.”

“Oh my _god._ ” Gordon was about to tear his hair out. “Fine. Fine. What’s the best way to do this then. Should I like. Drag you by the fuckin’ tail, or - ” Actually, he didn’t really want to touch that thing. He paused. “Maybe, uh. Piggyback?” That wouldn’t work too great either, Benrey’s tail would still end up scraping along the sand. Also, he didn’t trust Benrey not to try and choke him out from behind. Accidentally or otherwise.

“you’re not dragging me by the tail dude, oh my goood. fuckin’... sillyman here never carried a fish before.”

“I. No, actually, that’s one-hundred-percent correct, _this,_ ” Gordon gestured at Benrey, still lounging in his sad little puddle. “I can _safely say_ is a new situation for me.” 

The merperson clicked his tongue, thinking. They tilted their head, looking away, when their headfins raised a fraction, giving the impression that he just thought of something. “hey, uhhh so. you got a few feet right there, yes?” They pointed at Gordon’s shoes, one of which still had water streaming out of it. Gordon looked down at them, perplexed. Yes, he had feet.

“sooo, if i like, i ‘unno, asked you for a favorrr? or somethin’ would uhh…” They pointed towards the ocean, “can you pick me up and put me back there, please thank you.” They formed their clawed fingers into a heart. “please. i’d really ‘ppreciate it so much.”

“Dude, I literally _just_ said I would do that. Like _just_ now. I think you need new ears, those ones don’t seem to be doing you any good.”

“the fuck are _ears_.”

Gordon was getting tired of this. “Fuck it. I’m just gonna pick you up.” He scooped up the merperson, bridal style, or at least, he tried to. Benrey shrank away from his approaching arms, and Gordon let out an explosive sigh, throwing his hands in the air.

“ _Do you want help or not, fucker?_ ” He snapped.

“If you try it like that you’re gonna get jabbed, idiot. You couldn’t handle a stabby stab from me.”

“Then _help me_ , jackass. How do you expect me to pick you up? You’ve got spines all over the place.” Gordon took a step back, mentally cataloging where the spines were on Benrey’s form. From what Gordon could see, they had a long line of them on their back, maybe about a dozen, and a few on each elbow.

Benrey flicked at one of his headfins, and oh, those had spikes in them too. Lovely.

Gordon took a look at the markings on Benrey’s tail. Even though they were in greyscale, they were quite noticeable. Hm, bright markings, spines… “Are they, like, poisonous or something?”

“...no. why would they be poisonous that doesn’t make any sense. stupid not even know how poison works?”

“I think I could handle ‘ _a little_ _stabby stab’_ from them by mistake.” Gordon made air quotes at the clumsy wording. “You wouldn’t warn me for no reason.” 

“nooo, you couldn’t that shit hurts like hell. or so i’ve been told. i’m immune to my own fuckin uhh. venom ‘n shit.”

Gordon rolled his eyes. "Poison and venom might as well be the same thing, you knew what I meant.” Leave it to Benrey to willfully ignore his meaning just to aggravate him.

Gordon peered at the tide pool that was shrinking around the merperson, the water either evaporating or being absorbed into the sand. “Do you not have gills? How are you _breathing_ right now?”

“dude if i had only gills how would i be talking. you need lungs to talk, idiot. if i try to talk through them _this_ happens.” Benrey clenched his teeth, and from behind his headfins two streams of bubbles began fizzing out, bubbling seawater streaming down his neck.

“Oh my _god,_ what the _fuck_ !” It was like a kid blowing chocolate milk bubbles with a straw. Gordon had _not_ been expecting that at all, and was shocked into breathless giggles, doubling over. Benrey broke off from his bubble-blowing, it seemed he couldn’t keep it up while he was laughing. They were wasting time again, damn it.

“Okay, okay, that’s _really_ good, but-” Gordon was interrupted by a second wave of his own laughter, recomposing himself. “ - h… how do you - _fuck, hold on_ , okay - how can I carry you?”

Benrey shrugged, still smiling a bit. “i ‘unno, never been carried before. think you can handle me, strongboy? big strongguy here?” They raised their arms in front of them, assumedly indicating they were good with being picked up this way.

Alright, they’d try piggyback, maybe. Gordon turned around, squatted in front of Benrey, pointing at his neck. “Okay, try holding onto me, _don’t choke me_ or I _will_ drop you I swear to god.”

Benrey hesitated for just a moment, then slowly wrapped his cold arms around Gordon’s neck. Benrey was mostly dry by now, not counting the wet spots streaming from his gills and some of his tail, but they hadn’t seemed to warm up much in the sun at all.

Gordon realized something, immediately after standing up. A piggyback hold would _normally_ also involve the carried person supporting some of their weight, with their legs around the other person. Benrey did not have legs. As such, _all_ of Benrey’s weight was hanging off of Gordon’s neck, and he stumbled, wheezing at the pressure on his windpipe. _Yes_ , Gordon expected him to be heavy, but _man_ , this sucked. Whatever, they were up, time to go.

Gordon took a heavy, clumsy step forward, and then another. His vision was starting to go out a little on the edges. They could do this. It wasn’t too far except _oh my god it was so far_.

“don’t fuck up.” Gordon heard over his shoulder, before Benrey’s head came to rest on it. Gordon’s brain foggily came to the conclusion that in this position, one of their headfins would be practically brushing his ear, but couldn’t exactly worry about that right now.

“ _How exactly would I fuck this up, I -”_ Gordon croaked, swallowing to try and relieve the pressure. It didn’t help. _“’m not going to drop you._ ”

“don’t fuck up. don’t want a little stabby stab.”

Gordon made it a few more steps, Benrey’s tail dragging a trench in the wet sand behind them. Gordon grit his teeth as Benrey shifted his grip, part of his wrist digging into his trachea or something, making him almost gag. His vision was getting fuzzy.

“dude, you good?” he felt Benrey move, lifting his chin off Gordon’s shoulder.

“ _I - I can’t -_ ” Gordon couldn’t _talk_. He swayed, took another step. They were maybe halfway to the shoreline, but Gordon was having trouble keeping his balance, not enough blood was getting to his head, Benrey’s arms were putting too much pressure on the arteries there. He teetered there for a moment, trying to gulp air into his lungs. It wasn’t to be, Gordon’s legs gave out suddenly and they both crashed sideways to the ground. Benrey unthreaded their arms from around the man’s neck, mindful of the venomous spikes on their elbows. Gordon lay there for a moment, shifting to lay on his back, getting sand all over himself. He tried to control his wheezing and massaged his neck to try and get some feeling back into it. Blood was finally getting back into his brain, his vision clearing.

“dude maybe you should work on your uhh... fish carrying strats. that was. pretty shit. not even a passing grade, oof. not even a 69 outta hundred from me.”

Gordon lifted his head off the sand, glaring tiredly at the merperson. He was sore all over, from overexerting himself, from the tumble to the ground, and from getting strangled half to death by the merperson insulting him. He hoped he wouldn’t get bruises. “ _Shut up_. I’m trying to stop you from dying, asshole.”

God, there was sand _everywhere_. Parts of Benrey’s tail that were still particularly wet were no longer, instead now coated in a thick layer of sand. Some stuck to their chest as well, and Benrey frowned at it, attempting to brush it off, succeeding but only slightly as it just ended up coating their hand as well. Benrey looked annoyed at the offending limb. Gordon looked at it as well, and -

Wait, hold on.

Gordon did a double-take, squinting at Benrey’s hands. Were they not webbed before? Gordon could have sworn they had more tissue connecting the digits of their hand.

Before Gordon could question them about it, Benrey flopped onto his back the sand, letting out a loud, annoyed _ughhhh_. They didn’t seem to mind the spines on his back being utterly squished by his own weight.

“Um.” Gordon moved so he wasn’t laying flat, resting an elbow on the sand as he looked at the annoyed merperson beside him. “...you good man? What’s up with your hand there?”

Benrey made a sound that could best be transcribed as ‘ _mnnhhhnn..._ ’ holding his hand out for Gordon to see, not bothering to look up. Was he _sulking_? What the fuck was he so annoyed about?

Gordon looked again at the merperson’s hand. It was _changing_. The black claws retracted, becoming more blunt, rounded. The webbing receded, shrinking until there was just the slightest amount near the base of each finger. The black and white markings faded, leaving just a solid gray. Gordon pulled his gaze away, looking at the rest of the merperson. _What the fuck was going on_. 

Benrey’s long tail seemed to… _split_. Gordon would have thought this would hurt, but Benrey didn’t seem to be in pain, his arms now crossed in front of him as he lay on the sandy ground.

He was just waiting it out? What the fuck, was this _normal_?

“ _What the fuck is going on. Benrey_.” Gordon tried to keep his words sharp, but they wobbled as he spoke them, this was _freaking him out more than just a little._

One of Benrey’s headfins lifted at Gordon’s words, and that too was shrinking, folding and curling in on itself. “i was tryin’ to avoid this, but fuckin’ clumsy ass over here can’t carry tiny benry a few feet to the nice water. thought you were like a. strong boy. disappointing. hear that. you disappointing me.”

“What? Avoid _what_? Are you dying? What the _fuck_ is going on!?”

“c’mon, you got eyes. take a guess.”

The man blinked, watching as Benrey’s form slowly became something else. The spines on his elbows were shrinking, his teeth (from what he could see) shifting and shortening. Not to mention what was going on with the _tail_.

Logically, Gordon knew that there was a big difference between a fishtail and legs. The bones alone would be completely different, let alone the muscles connected to them. But as this… _transformation_ occurred, that seemed to be what Benrey’s tail was changing into. It shrunk down and down until it was almost comically small compared to before. The scales seemed to melt away, leaving gray skin behind in its place. Before long, there were no striped markings on Benrey at all, aside from the one across his eyes, that one remained untouched. Aside from that and the inhuman gray skin, Benrey looked practically human.

“can’t _fucking_ believe it.” He was still more or less still laying dejectedly on the ground, but they raised a single foot ( _Benrey had legs now. What the fuck_ ) to inspect it. He narrowed his eyes in an accusatory fashion at his own foot. 

“goddamnit. guess i’m the feetman now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so like. I hope this doesn't make anyone mad but I'm gonna be following H2O: Just Add Water logic for some of this. Not like 100%, but it's gonna be in the same vein. For fun. For maximum shenanigans potential. Okay? Okay. This is self-indulgent fanfiction and I say it'll be the most fun.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys. I am super happy about all your comments and things and wow there are so many people who like this!!! it's pretty wild!!! thank you so much!  
> also look out. he's ass  
> 

“woahh you can like, move them one at a time? dude, these are like, pre-release fingers! who let these past the beta testers, what the hell.” Their feet hit the ground with a _pap, pap, pap._ “why d’ you guys keep em in your shoes all the time you could like. grab stuff with ‘em.” Benrey was still sitting, preoccupied with trying to pick up sand with their foot, which, unsurprisingly, was not happening. 

Gordon watched in bewilderment for several moments, at a loss. Benrey was having trouble coordinating everything, let alone flexing their toes enough to _grab the sand_. It kept falling away in wet clumps, piling up around the merperson-now-human-kind-of. Benrey switched to creating a sort of hill, making a sad, lumpy sandcastle.

He then remembered _oh, Benrey’s not wearing anything,_ and looked away. The newly-bipedal merperson didn’t seem too bothered by it, so Gordon decided it wasn’t worth it to bring up complex concepts like modesty just yet. He continued to hear the shifting and crunching of sand.

“Alright alright, enough of that.” Gordon checked his phone, more out of habit than anything. His eyes glossed over the numbers onscreen as he realized something.

“ _Hold on_ ,” Gordon grit his teeth. He turned to Benrey. “Are you telling me you _weren’t even in danger?_ I thought you were _dying!”_

“hmmmm? oh. nah, just uh.” Benrey abruptly cleared their throat, wiped a hand over their mouth. “w’s under the impression that it would hurt a lot more.” They caught sight of their own hand, flipping it over and inspecting it. “jus’ felt weird, you know?” They shrugged, unbothered.

Their hands had taken on an almost-human form. While they were the same washed-out gray as the rest of them, it appeared as though the webbing between them hadn’t receded as much as Gordon thought. It wasn’t _too_ noticeable, especially at a distance, unless maybe you were looking for it. Each finger was connected not quite up until the first knuckle.

Gordon let out an aggravated breath, tugging at his hair. This was a _complete_ waste of time and effort on Gordon’s part. So Benrey _was_ just being a nuisance. Figures. He should have expected as much, really!

Gordon turned, angry with himself for caring, and began walking back towards his car. He was tired, he was sore, he just wanted to go sleep it off.

“wait, dude, hold on - _fuck - “_ he heard Benrey moving, sand shifting.

“ _What_.”

Gordon spun around, facing Benrey, who was trying to position their feet correctly as they attempted to stand up. “ _What._ I’ve already tried helping you, and you were just, _fucking around_! As usual! Are you that desperate for attention that you’d put yourself in danger like this? Sure, you weren’t in danger of drying up like a fucking - _I don’t know,_ but what if somebody saw you?”

Gordon paused, gauging Benrey’s reaction. They seemed to be listening, even if they didn’t seem happy about what they were hearing.

“What then, huh? What if it wasn’t me? Any of the other scientists see your, fucking - ” Gordon waved erratically in the air above him, “ - _sweet voice signal_ , and you’re dead!”

“no - “

“YES, actually. I am well aware that Black Mesa’s got some shady stuff going on, I’m not stupid. Thankfully, I’ve been _somehow_ lucky enough to not get tangled up in much illegal shit yet. _This_ ,” He motioned in Benrey’s general direction, “ _Might ping their radar_."

“You think Black Mesa’s here to measure ph balance? _Salinity_? I _very much_ doubt it. I think a goddamn merperson, _you_?” Gordon pointed an accusatory finger at them. “Are _exactly_ what they’re looking for.”

“no, you don’t, fucking-“ Benrey paused, their words dying in their throat, looking away. They chewed their lip, mulling over Gordon’s words. Then there was a shift in their demeanor, and they titled their head at Gordon, a smile forming. “you saying you care me? gordon with- gordon get a little bit of care for benry in his system?” 

“Wh - no, _listen_. It’s not like that. I don’t care you - _care about you_ \- like that.” Damn, was he blushing? Hopefully not. “I feel like I would care if _anyone_ I know was in danger because of Black Mesa! I don’t want you _dead_!”

Benrey let out a sort of giggle, flopping onto their back. “haaa, gordon catch feelies for - for benrey as soon as they get a matching pairrr -“ They lifted a foot, wiggling it in his direction.

_Goddamnit_. “Shut the fuck up, you’re not even making _sense_ , god…”

They laughed again, more of a cackle then anything. They brought a hand up to their face, moving their jaw, suddenly distracted.

Benrey’s smile faded, clacking their teeth together a few times, and drew their eyebrows into a frown. “don’t like these new teeth, _wow_. zero out of ten review. how’m i s’pposed to crunch and munch now, i got like. flat things in here.”

Gordon threw his hands up in the air, again turning to leave. “You can figure out how to walk by yourself, walk _back into the ocean_ , and _fuck off_. I’m going home and if you’re here tomorrow, I’ll, fucking - I don’t _know,_ just _don’t be here_.”

“nooo, please, c’mon this is…” They paused, thinking. Gordon heard their hand hit the sand with a soft _slap_. “i’s my first time on land, it’s s’posed to be special, maaan...” Benrey had given up on trying to stand up, instead doing a sort of half-crawl, half-drag across the sand. Their legs weren’t helping at all, just acting as dead weight.

Gordon presses the heels of his hands to his temples. Now they were trying to guilt-trip him.

And he was falling for it.

Goddamnit.

“What do you mean.” Gordon made jaded air-quotes. “Special.” He didn’t believe them for a second.

“like, ummmm… mmm. my friend.” Benrey looked down, drawing in the sand with a dull, black fingernail. “my good pal. his first, like, adventure on land was _dope_ , dude. helped a lot of people n shit. was a pretty uhh… good. good 'n shit.”

Gordon waited for Benrey to elaborate. They didn’t, of course.

Goddamnit.

“Fine.” Gordon hated this. “I’m gonna grab, like, some clothes or something, I’ll be back. If you’re gone by the time I get back I’m never helping you again.”

Benrey gave him a thumbs up, still with most of their body firmly on the ground. Seems like they weren't going anywhere. Gordon paid him no mind.

Now, _where_ to find clothes. They had a few spare lab coats in the building, but he’d rather avoid Coomer, Bubby, and likely Darnold at this point. It was _possible_ that Gordon had left a spare raincoat or something in his car at some point.

He walked a good portion of the way, then started to get paranoid about leaving Benrey all alone for too long, jogging the last little bit to his car. He saw another car parked there, that would be Darnold, already in the lab. Gordon peered inside through his window first, finding nothing. He checked the trunk, under the seats, even the glove box for anything. Nope.

In the lab, then. Maybe he’d get lucky and not run into anybody.

Was it worth being sneaky? They saw him leave, if he came back to grab a lab coat of all things, they could ask any sort of questions.

He eased open the door, peeking inside and goddamnit, Darnold was right there. The man looked up from his clipboard, pen tucked behind one ear. Gordon didn’t really interact with the doctor too much, considering they worked on opposite sides of the clock, but judging by the few times they’d worked together, Gordon thought he was... fine. He didn’t really have an opinion beyond that, so far. Gordon _was_ still considered new around here.

“Oh, Hey Gordon, thought you went home already. D’you forget something?”

“Uhh.” His eyes flicked over to the office door, Bubby and Coomer were still in there, probably. Gordon stepped through the doorway, leaning over to snag a lab coat out of the closet. “Forgot to. Clock out?” This one felt mostly dry, it would do.

“...aren’t you on salary? We all are, Gordon.” Darnold tilted his head, looking a little worried. “You doing okay?”

Shit. Gordon stuffed the lab coat under one arm, fully aware that Darnold was watching him concernedly but not really having another option. Fuck.

“OKTHANKSBYE.” Gordon darted out the door, slamming it behind him.

Well, that could have gone better. Back to the beach.

After the short walk, he found that Benrey had, surprisingly, stayed put. Whether that was because they didn’t want to figure out how feet - _legs_ worked, or because they were actually _listening_ to Gordon for once, was up for debate. Gordon had his doubts.

Benrey was distracting themselves by covering one eye with a hand, followed by the other, and removing them, in a repeating pattern. Cover left eye, cover right eye, remove both. Gordon approached with the lab coat, eyebrow raised.

“Did you test drive your new feet at all? I was gone like five whole minutes, you could be up by now!”

“you can’t drive feet. what are you talking about.” Benrey stilled, hands falling away. “dude your eyes are whaaack. the sun isn’t even, like, bright anymore. everything’s fucking blurry as shit, you live like this?”

Gordon didn’t indulge him, throwing the lab coat on top of him in a big heap. “Put this on. If you won’t _fucking go back in the water_ your best chance at laying low is to come with me.”

The white coat landed on Benrey’s head, who reached up to pull it off, grumbling. They turned it over in their hands, then turned it some more, frowning. After about 10 seconds of Benrey rotating the fabric, Gordon grabbed it, turning it right-side out. “Arm holes here. Head hole here.” He pointed at the corresponding openings in the fabric. Benrey followed along for a moment, but then their gaze slid off, landing and staying fixed on Gordon’s face. Gordon felt annoyance creeping up at this, but he was not surprised. He shook the coat at them, which didn’t draw their attention away.

“Benrey. Focus. You need to wear this.”

Benrey blinked once, slowly. Vaguely, Gordon was reminded of a cat.

Fuck, now he was the one getting distracted.

Gordon cleared his throat at Benrey, again waving the coat at them. “Dude.”

“mmmmmnn. fine. give.”

Benrey gently took it, inspecting it. They wrestled with the fabric, somehow not getting it on backward. They fiddled with the open buttons in the front, poking them with a dark fingernail.

Gordon sighed, kneeling down to better reach the buttons on the front of Benrey's coat. He knew he shouldn’t be so aggravated by this, it’s not like Benrey would have seen buttons before. It was just a pain.

Both his knees were getting wet, again. And all covered in sand. Gordon fought to get the buttons done up, Benrey watching closely, _very_ closely. Gordon was ignoring how close they were, and as soon as he finished the last one he gave a quick pat to Benrey’s shoulder and shot up, turning away.

Benrey gave a questioning _hmmm?_ At Gordon’s quick retreat, but was then preoccupied with the feeling of fabric on their arms, brushing it with a hand.

“why do we need this again. seems like a lot of effort. also it’s shit. who fucking - designed. can’t move my arms.”

“You can move them. I’m literally watching you move them right now. C’mon.” Gordon held out a hand for them, which Benrey simply looked at. Right, they’ve never had feet before. “I’m helping you up. Come on.”

Benrey delicately put their hand in his, in a sort of sad-noodle arm handshake. Gordon gripped it and pulled, which Benrey had _not_ been expecting, as they let out a yelp of alarm, being forced to their feet. Almost immediately they stumbled, tripping over their feet which seemed to have no idea on how to stand up. Benrey, still under the momentum of Gordon’s pulling them upright, had no chance of stopping themselves as they collapsed into Gordon, who barely managed to not fall over from the extra weight. Despite the lack of tail, he was still _really heavy_. The sort of half-hug was interrupted by Gordon’s raucous laughter, at which Benrey looked up, cheeks dusted with color. 

Gordon tilted his head, a good-natured smirk on his face. “Now who’s falling for who?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gave me a bit of trouble and some of it I'm like ehhh about??? sdjkhg I hope it's good???  
> tyyyy ok I love youuu


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Walking is hard okay. They'll figure it out maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: okay I will! Finish chapter today! And if I finish today! I will get chips!  
> It's been like 6 hours I WANT THOSE MFIN CHIPS they're taunting me!!! In the corner!!!  
> ok enjoy thank youuu

Gordon stared in shock down at Benrey.

Benrey blinked up at Gordon. They looked equally shocked by his bold words.

_Did I really just fucking say that. Out loud._

A slow grin crept onto Benrey’s face. Gordon, wanting to avoid whatever comment Benrey was going to make about the _sappy shit he just said_ , kicked them lightly in the leg with his own. Benrey jumped a bit, looking down.

“Uh - get. Get those legs a-movin'. One at a time.” Gordon attempted to move, putting more weight on one foot, and Benrey clung to him, fingers digging into his arms painfully. They may not have claws anymore, but _damn_ they were strong. Gordon gritted his teeth, but didn’t mention it. “My right, your left.”

“what - what is -“

“Just try lifting one off the ground.”

After a long moment punctuated by one foot twitching, followed by the other, one grey foot hesitantly raised an inch off of the sand.

“Ok move it _that_ way.” Gordon jerked his head in a direction, towards the lab. Benrey had their eyes focused on their feet, so they couldn’t see where Gordon was indicating. They seemed to get the gist despite this, moving it minutely over, another inch at most, placing it down hard.

They let out a tense breath. One down, _a lot_ more to go.

“Okay, the other one. Move it farther than that or we’ll be here all fuckin’ day.” Despite his words, Gordon’s tone wasn’t too sharp.

Another pause. Benrey still hadn’t figured out the ‘shift-your-weight’ thing,’ so when they reluctantly bent their leg, Gordon was again left supporting most of their weight. He wheezed at the immense pressure gripping at his arms.

“ _Dude, you’re crushing me, you gotta -_ “ Benrey’s hold loosened slightly, marginally. “Support your own weight, put it on one, move the other. You got this.”

“there’s two of them. the joints are - ” Benrey shook their head, anxiety mounting. ”backwards and forwards, i can’t - i feel like a - like i’ve been put on a shitty emulator, these shits don’t make _sense…”_

“Benrey. Hey.”

They blinked, looking up at him. Their uncertain eyes were still a piercing yellow, maybe a bit duller, but still distinctly inhuman. Their gaze flicked from one of Gordon’s eyes to the other, as if unsure which to look at.

“Don’t worry about it. One at a time, take your time.” Gordon gave a reassuring smile. “I’m gonna move, okay? Follow along. You’ll be fine.” Gordon shifted to the side, a little more suddenly. Benrey’s eyes snapped downwards again, concentrating. Gordon hoped that some sort of self-preservation instinct would kick in, and it seemed his hopes were not unfounded. Benrey moved automatically, a leg shooting out to catch their weight before they could fall. Gordon moved the other way, and Benrey followed with a few more clumsy steps, still shaky but getting more used to it.

“There you go! You got it!” Gordon smiled, and Benrey huffed a laugh, their grip relaxing a tiny bit more. It was still a bit of a death grip, but at least Gordon could feel his arms again, blood rushing back to them.

Benrey gave a quiet, tense laugh. “moving one of these at a time _fucking sucks_. why do you need so many. that’s like. two times what you need.”

Gordon raised an eyebrow, more amused than anything. “How exactly do you expect us humans to get around with one leg? Sounds like even more of a hassle if you ask me.” Gordon took the opportunity to move again, Benrey stumbling along with him. They stared at them as they walked.

“they’re so... _weird looking_. why they got their own little fingernails - TOENAILS.” Gordon jumped at Benrey’s declaration, then looked down. He couldn’t see his own through his shoes, but Benrey definitely had some, the same dark-not-quite-black as their fingernails.

“I GET IT NOW. oh my god, toenails. they’re toenails.”

“What does _that_ mean?” Gordon asked, bewildered. “You have to have seen fucking _toenails_ before.” People wore sandals at the beach, or hell, went barefoot, all the time.

“yeah, well, not up close. you uhh... science boys ‘re always wearing those things,” Benrey inclined their head at Gordon’s lab-safe closed-toed shoes. “an’ i don’t visit people up here much. ‘s bright.”

They took a few more steps. Benrey’s steps became less frantic, evening out into a balanced pace to match Gordon’s.

Gordon decided to keep up the conversation, they still had a ways to go. “The light bothers you, then?” _Step, step, step_. He’d noticed how Benrey often screwed up his eyes when looking at anything bright, such as Gordon’s phone, or the lights from the lab at night.

“mmmn.” That was probably a sound of agreement. “it’s uhh. nice ‘n warm for a lil' while up here but. makes my head hurt.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about fucking... fish-person biology but you might just need to build up a tolerance for it.” As they went, Benrey supported more and more of themselves, until soon the merperson was walking almost under their own weight. “You more of a night owl then?”

“The fuck is an _owl_.”

“It’s - a bird. They’re - You know what, it doesn’t matter.” They were approaching the building now, it seemed as though Bubby and Coomer had left at some point. The only vehicles left were Darnold’s and Gordon’s. Luckily Gordon’s was closer, which meant a little less awkward hug-walking.

Benrey was still holding on to Gordon’s arms, it seemed as though they just forgot they were doing so. Gordon removed one from their hold, dug his keys out of his pocket, and unlocked the passenger side with the key fob. The sound of the lock disengaging with a soft _ka-chunk_ was still enough to startle Benrey, who tensed. They shot a worried look from the car to Gordon, and back again.

“You ever been in one of these before?” Gordon opened the passenger door, motioning inside. He looked over at the lab, hoping Darnold didn’t look over and see this strange person Gordon was with. He wasn’t sure how he’d go about explaining this. “It’s not that bad. The radio gets a bit fuzzy for some of the drive, but as we get closer to town it gets clearer.”

Benrey peered in through the open door, frowning. They were either not registering Gordon’s words, or not understanding. They might not have known what a radio was.

Gordon was getting a little nervous, he wasn’t sure where Darnold was at the moment, the other guy could spot them at any moment. “Alright, get in.” Gordon tapped the side of the open door, getting Benrey’s attention. He slipped his remaining arm out of the merperson’s grip, walking around to the driver’s side and slipping inside.

He’d already closed his door and put on his seatbelt before he remembered to check on Benrey, who had, in that time, only managed to stick their head in, examining every inch with a critical eye. After entirely too long, Benrey finally got in, clumsily copying how Gordon was sat in the opposite chair. They seemed at a loss on how the seatbelt got there, until Gordon pointed over their shoulder. After Benrey noticed it and did nothing, Gordon rolled his eyes (this was getting a _little_ ridiculous) and did it up for them.

Finally, Gordon turned the key in the ignition, and the engine rumbled to life. Benrey jumped a mile and covered their ears with a curse. Gordon shot him a quick apologetic look (he didn’t think it was _that_ loud), before reversing out onto the road. Benrey slowly removed their hands from their ears, dropping them into his lap.

Gordon made it out onto the main road, idly fiddling with the radio. It would still be a while until they got more than static, but whatever.

“hey.” Benrey said out of nowhere. “you got uhh… credentials? for this big hunk ‘a junk here?” They slapped the dashboard. Luckily it wasn't hard enough for the airbag to go off. “gotta make sure you got your papers for this thing. you sure it’s really yours? suspicious…”

Alright well, if they were back to being annoying, they were probably fine.

Gordon pulled out his wallet and tossed it in Benrey’s direction. Benrey did not catch it, watching it and making no move to stop it as it fell between their seat and the door. Shit.

“wowww. now i’m EXTRA suspicious. you didn’t even let me see it? i’m gonna need you to. step outta the vehicle here. please, thank you. please.”

“If you step out of the vehicle right now you will... _probably_ die, we are going _very_ fast.” A light came on on the dash, drawing Gordon’s attention. Damnit, he should have gotten gas earlier. Well, he was already delayed in getting home, it wouldn’t hurt to delay it a bit more. He could also replace the Cheetos that Benrey had hogged all to themselves. The thief in question was currently poking at their fingernails, a puzzled expression on their face.

Hmm.

The promise of Cheetos was very tempting.

Benrey could just stay in the car. They could manage that, right?

Ehh, why not. The gas-station-slash-convenience store was coming up on the right, just in time. He flicked on his indicator, slowing down and making his way into the small parking lot. Benrey, noticing the change in speed, perked up a bit, hands falling away from their head. They leaned against the door, catching sight of the presumably locally-owned business. Gordon quickly checked to make sure the door was locked so that Benrey wouldn’t accidentally tumble out.

Gordon went through the steps of filling up on gas in record time, anxious to get home before Benrey was spotted by someone. Great, now he was starting to second guess his decision. He shut the door with a quick “stay here” to Benrey, who frowned, crossing their arms and sinking heavily into their seat.

As he waited for the car to fill up, he kept one eye on Benrey, as well as the cashier guy in the store. Gordon could only kind of see him from this angle, he looked like the same guy from earlier. Maybe the dog (Sunkist, was it?) would still be there as well. Gordon idly wondered if Benrey had ever seen a dog, or what he’d think of them.

Speaking of Benrey, he looked back in the car, only to see the merperson in question shoot up to look out the window, hands splayed against the glass. Gordon couldn’t see his expression clearly from the other side of the car, but Benrey was staring holes into the building, specifically at the cashier, who seemed to be none the wiser.

Gordon wasn’t sure what Benrey’s problem was, but figured maybe he should hurry up. He remembered that his wallet was still stuck between the seats, and finished putting away the gas pump before going over to Benrey’s side of the car to get it. He walked around until he was directly in front of the passenger door, Benrey only catching sight of him once he was right in front of them. They blinked at him for a moment, before finally unsticking themselves from the window. Gordon opened the door and reached behind them, luckily the wallet hadn't fallen too far back yet.

“I gotta go inside for a second. You stay here, _stop staring at that guy_ , you’ve seen people before and they’re gonna get suspicious if they see you. Your skin is a dead giveaway. I’ll be like two minutes, _don’t follow me_.”

“psh, you already told me once, idiot. what, you got memory problems now? don’t worry ‘bout it.” Benrey put on an air of nonchalance, again crossing their arms and leaning back, although their gaze was still focused behind Gordon at the man in the store.

Gordon’s lips thinned, and he raised an eyebrow for good measure. Benrey didn’t notice, still distracted.

Gordon was _quite sure_ that Benrey was going to get up and follow him as soon as he turned his back, but not having many options, he locked the door and headed inside anyway. He should have just filled up on gas this following evening. Fuck. If this ended poorly he would just blame Benrey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I know you pay for gas first and THEN you get it but. Listen. Look at this cool goat Ꮚ･ꈊ･Ꮚ


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yo, we visit Tommy again, love that dude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YO I'm really excited about this one so I hope y'all like it okay. okay. Thank u

Gordon tried to listen for the sound of the car door unlocking behind him as he walked the short distance to the store. He wasn’t sure how long he had until Benrey figured it out, so he’d have to hurry. On one hand, pulling on the door handle would disengage the lock, so it wasn’t _that_ complicated, but on the other hand. Benrey probably hadn’t encountered many doors in their life.

Gordon realized it looked _kind of suspicious as hell_ to be looking over his shoulder so much, so he tried to clamp down on his instincts to keep an eye on Benrey at all times, and kept his gaze forward.

The bells above the door jingled cheerfully at his arrival, and the guy at the counter looked up from the paperwork he was peering over.

“Oh! You’re back, did - did you forget to fill up, when you were here earlier?” Yep, it was the same cashier from before - a quick glance at the nametag pinned to his shirt revealed his name to be ‘Tommy’. He didn’t seem to have lost any of his cheer in the several hours since Gordon’s last visit.

“Yeah,” He flipped open his wallet, searching for his debit card. He kept looking over towards his car, he couldn’t help himself. “Thought I might as well get some chips while I’m here. Again.” Gordon picked salt and vinegar this time. Maybe Benrey would think twice about stealing his food next time. It would serve them right.

“You really like chips?”

Gordon blinked, looking back at Tommy. “What?”

“You bought some last time you were here, a few hours ago too. Remember?”

Oh, he was just making conversation. “No, well - “ Bend the truth just a bit. “I put them down for like a second earlier and my co-workers jumped on ‘em like a pack of wolves. I think I only got a single Cheeto.” He laughed, scratching the back of his neck. 

“Oh, yeah, I know how that is!” Tommy smiled knowingly, taking a moment to tap at the keys on the till, the old, clunky keys sticking a little bit. Tommy, seemingly an expert at this, just flicked the side of the machine, pressed backspace a few times, and went back to it.

Gordon’s eyes wandered. not quite finding purchase on any one thing. He’d been in this store quite a few times as of late, so there wasn’t really anything new to look at.

Then he heard what sounded like his car door opening. Oh shit, Benrey, he’d almost forgotten. He looked over, trying to be subtle as to not alert the cashier, who was still having some trouble putting the numbers in. Benrey stumbled out the passenger side, getting a foot stuck in the seatbelt. They bared their teeth at it, shaking it off impatiently. Did they even unbuckle it? It didn’t look like it. They were still wearing just the lab coat, which would just end up raising _more_ questions.

Benrey caught sight of Gordon, waving cheerfully, and to his mounting horror, started walking over to join him. They still stumbled every inch of the way - it seemed that they had forgotten some of the basics of walking during the short drive.

Gordon bit his lip, shaking his head while glaring daggers at the approaching disaster in progress. _This was only going to end poorly._ He tried to motion with his head, something along the lines of “ _get back in the fucking car,_ ” but Benrey either didn’t care or didn’t comprehend, smiling smugly the whole way over. That is, until they tripped over themselves, squawking and just barely managing to right themselves before they tumbled to the ground completely.

Gordon inhaled sharply, turning back to Tommy. Maybe he didn’t hear that. Maybe Gordon could pretend they weren’t together. Maybe it would be okay.

Gordon watched helplessly as his _horrible friend_ stumbled in. They fumbled for a moment with the pull door. Gordon was sure Benrey had seen him use it not a moment before, but they still attempted to push it first. Benrey didn’t even wait a minute before attempting to follow him out of the car. Motherfucker.

The bells above the door jingled in a much more jarring fashion than they had a minute ago, drawing Benrey’s attention as he walked in. They glanced up at the top of the doorframe, then at the ceiling in general. They blinked at the harsh fluorescents, although the similar lighting to the lab didn’t seem to be bothering them as much as it had last night.

“Uh. Hello? Can I - help you?”

Shit, that was Tommy. This situation just got _way_ more complicated.

Benrey blinked at being addressed, turning to the two of them. He grinned when he caught sight of the cashier, and Gordon was suddenly ten times more worried about how this might turn out. 

“tommyyy, what’s up, my guy, didn’t expect to see you here, what the hell. super cool.”

Gordon froze. That was about the _last_ thing he expected to come out of the merperson's mouth. Even weirder, Tommy didn't even seem phased to see the mostly-naked man in his store. _What the fuck_.

“...Hi, Benrey.” Tommy responded, uncertainly. “Um, what - what are you doing here? You don’t normally visit me during... the day?”

“i normally don’t visit you at ALL, dude! i didn’t know you were here, you never told me you worked at this... this cool and fancy restaurant.” Benrey waved a hand in the air, vaguely gesturing around at the so-called ‘restaurant’. “so mean, holding out on me. got all these tasty human treats. uh, i mean. regular treats. yessir regularrr… treats and goodies. capaysin. yes.”

A tense silence fell upon them. Benrey didn’t seem to notice, immediately getting distracted by the slushie machine that was quietly whirring in the corner. They walked over to it, examining it with a critical eye. “yo, is sunkist around? wanna meet the legend.”

“Oh! Yes, she’s behind the counter here. Sunkist, w-wake up, Benrey wants to meet you!” Tommy let out a nervous chuckle, stealing a glance at Gordon. He was clearly anxious about Gordon being here, although the man wasn’t sure why.

The big golden retriever - BIG, holy shit. Did they normally get that big? There’s no way. - got up slowly, big dopey eyes blinking away sleep. She trotted over to Benrey, who tripped while trying to back away, suddenly out of their depth when faced with such a creature. 

Sunkist seemed to sense his hesitation, stopping at a respectful distance and sniffing him cautiously from afar. Benrey took heart at this, holding out an almost-steady hand for her to inspect.

The dog moseyed closer, snuffling their hand before giving it a tentative lick. Benrey grinned widely, pulling her into a hug, finally scratching behind her ears. Her leg started going against the floor in a steady _thump-thump-thump_ , which made Benrey dissolve into hysterical laughter.

Gordon was thrown for a loop, gaze flicking between both of them. “How exactly do you two know each other?” Did Tommy visit him all the way at the ocean?

“We, uh - “

“we went to school together, best buds, us two.” Benrey was suddenly right beside Gordon, making him jump. Damn, they were figuring out the ins and outs of walking quick, Gordon hadn’t even heard them move. “best good friend tommy here. right tommy?”

“Y - Yeah, that’s it! It’s been quite a few years since then, but we’ve managed to keep in touch.” Tommy seemed put at ease again, going back to read the numbers on the till. Oh yeah, Gordon still had to pay. _Obviously_ they didn’t go to school together, but Gordon didn’t know the specifics, and he wasn’t sure if Tommy was aware of Benrey’s status of not-human. He must, right? He had to, Benrey obviously hadn't been on land before. If Gordon was wrong, though…

“Mr. Freeman? H-How are you paying?”

“What? Oh.” Gordon was pulled from his thoughts, suddenly remembering the card he was holding in his hand. “Debit’s fine.”

Tommy tapped another key, then passed him the handheld debit machine. It looked just as old as the rest of the cash register, maybe older.

Gordon took it, his hand accidentally brushing Tommy’s for a moment. Tommy had tan skin, and while he didn’t have many freckles on his face, his hands were covered in them, even the undersides, surprisingly. They were quite dark, some were even bigger than his thumbnail. He’d never seen anything like it.

Gordon, without thinking, took one of Tommy’s hands in his own, before it was snatched away, disappearing into Tommy’s pockets. The man raised an eyebrow at him. Gordon blinked, suddenly realizing his mistake.

“Oh my god, sorry. I didn’t - “ Gordon stumbled over his words, mortified. He’d really just grabbed an almost-stranger’s hand.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s okay!” Tommy laughed quietly, hands still tucked away. “It’s just a skin condition, I get that a lot.”

“Still, I - I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that.” Gordon felt blood rushing to his face. God, who _does_ that? He really needed to get home and lie down. He’d been awake for too long at this point.

“bro, did you just grab my dude tommy? not cool, man.”

Gordon huffed at Benrey, who was poking at a display near the front counter, not even looking at him. “Yeah, I _know_ , that’s why I apologized. You’re one to talk, anyway! You’re always stealing my phone and shit!”

“yeah, but you’re _you_. you can’t be mean to tommy, he’s actually cool and stuff.”

Gordon rolled his eyes. “Great. I’m glad to know that you don’t think I’m ‘cool’.” The debit machine finally accepted his card with a cheerful _beep_. Gordon nodded at Tommy one last time, turning to leave. “C’mon Benrey, hurry up or I’m leaving you behind.”

Benrey pushed off of the magazine display they were leaning on, irritated. It rattled precariously at the sudden lack of weight on it. “see this is what i’m talking about.” Benrey motions at Gordon, giving Tommy a ‘can you believe this guy” look. “you’re so mean allll the time, gonna start calling you mean names to make up for it. gordon. gordon meanman over here. rudeman. you’re _rude_.”

Benrey stopped suddenly. “yo, hold up.” They turned to Tommy again. “hey did you have the chance to charge my thing? can i have it please. thank you friend tommy.”

Despite the vague line of questioning, Tommy immediately seemed to know what he was talking about, ducking behind the counter and handing them… some sort of handheld electronic. It was vaguely rectangular, had a screen on one side, it looked a little on the older side - Gordon caught sight of the letters ‘PSP’ inscribed on it. Ah, so that’s how Benrey knew about those.

“thank you so muchhh i appreciate it a lot.” benrey kissed their own fingers and mimed blowing it towards Tommy, who laughed and rolled his eyes, pretending to catch it. “could i have the charger also please? m’ gonna siphon all the power from Gordon’s house for being rude to you. he deserves it i swear.”

“Nooo, don’t do that! He didn’t mean anything by it, he’s fine.” Tommy reached back under the counter, bringing up two pieces of a tightly wound black charger. “Just make sure to bring it back the next time you can. Come visit me again soon! I don’t get to see you very much.”

“will do, i promise. ok bye.” They threw Tommy the ASL sign for ‘i love you’, finally following Gordon out the door.

“Oh, wait, Mr. Freeman! Your chips!” Tommy held them out towards him, leaning over the counter.

Oh my god, and he almost forgot the chips! Gordon really _was_ tired. He shouldered past Benrey (“see? rude, pushin’ me around n’ stuff.”) and he extended a hand to grab the chips with an apologetic expression. Gordon caught sight of Tommy’s hand again, he couldn’t help it, he was curious at heart.

Tommy’s nails were painted a dark brown, or at least, they looked like it, and -

Oh, _that_ was interesting.

The dark webbing between his fingers came up until the first knuckle, _much like_ a certain merperson who was standing behind him.

“Mr. - Mr. Freeman?” Tommy asked, voice wavering.

“Benrey, can I see your hand for a second?”

Benrey was looking at the wide selection of gum adjacent to the door, looking up with a ‘huh.’

Gordon's head snapped up, bright red. "Sorry! I just, uh, you two-hah, uh. You two kinda have the same, uh, hand thing. Going on." He swallowed, the pieces beginning to click into place in his head. He held up an awkward hand, wiggling his fingers. "J-just kinda neat! In my, um, my opinion.

There was a pause.

Tommy gave Benrey a tense look. Benrey returned with a helpless shrug, they didn’t seem _nearly_ as nervous as the both of them. “he already knows about me, dude. i say we just get it over with.”

“Yeah, but - “ Tommy bit his lip, looking back at Gordon. He seemed to be considering his words carefully. There was a puzzle here, and Gordon was about 90% sure he had the answer. The look Tommy gave him suggested that he was drawing the same conclusions. “What about the others?”

Benrey shrugged again. “they can handle themselves, i’m sure. it’s been hell this past week, it’s boring as fuck without anyone to talk to out there.” Benrey waved a hand dismissively in Gordon’s direction. “we can threaten to kill him if he blabs to anyone, no biggie.”

“Wh - _kill? Are you talking about me? Hello?_ ” Gordon was beginning to wonder just how big this all was.

Was this related to Black Mesa as well? It _had_ to be, right? _What the hell had he gotten himself into?_

Benrey _hmmed_ , a hand at their chin. And now they were ignoring him. “we’ll have to tell coomer and bubby and darnold about it.”

They were involved too, somehow? How deep did this _go_?

Benrey tilted their head. “d’you think we should leave it to them? i don’t like words. they’re better at them than i am. i’ll just make it real confusing.”

“I think I can handle it!” Tommy smiled confidently. “I’m good with metaphors, and I’m sure Mr. Freeman will ask about anything he’s confused about.”

With that, Tommy walked past Gordon to the door, flipping the ‘Yes, we’re open!’ sign to the opposite side in one quick motion. Gordon moved out of his way as he walked back to the other side of the divider again, a little intimidated by the change in demeanor.

Tommy finally met his gaze, dark brown eyes sharp and threatening. Gordon gulped under the intense scrutiny, anxiety taking hold. The salt and vinegar chips felt heavy in his sweaty hand.

“So.” Tommy began, folding his hands together on the glass countertop. ”How much do you already know?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> KJDHSGKJH Sorry about the uhh cliffhanger thing but I really wanted to end it there <3 for the drama, you know?  
> BOTH MY BETA WRITERS HELPED ON THIS ONE! Maximum teamwork <3 Thank you, you two. Love you!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BIIIG CHAPTER LIKE A DOUBLE-CHAPTER  
> Also, why did I think I could juggle three characters (and Sunkist). It's so hard to keep track of everyone skjhgkg I DID MY BEST OKAY

The stares Gordon could feel coming from the other two were...  _ oppressive _ , to put it mildly. He felt both sets of eyes on him as he tried to figure out how to answer. He was normally great at talking, why was he clamming up  _ now _ ? His paralyzed throat wasn’t helping at all, frozen just like the rest of him.

_ How much DID he know about what was going on? _

He shouldn’t have been so nosey, but he couldn’t  _ help _ it, he was a scientist at heart. Of  _ course _ asking suspicious questions was going to land him in hot water eventually. He just didn’t think it would be so soon.

Tommy’s mention of metaphors had Gordon thinking of his own, that maybe he could compare his actions to a bug who had flicked at a spider’s web a few too many times and was now paying the price. Or maybe he was a different bug, pinned to a corkboard without realizing it, until it was far too late.

Why hadn’t he just kept his mouth shut?

The man shakily placed the bag of chips on the counter, uncomfortable with how heavy it felt, folding his sweaty hands on top. He attempted to control his breathing, which was steadily becoming more and more frantic.

_ How much did he know again? _

They needed an answer, but he was having trouble stringing anything coherent together in his head. Benrey’s quick assurance to Tommy about how easy it would be to kill Gordon rang hollowly in his head. Had they killed the last person who was in Gordon’s position? Was  _ that _ why he was transferred all the way out here in the first place?

He could feel his thoughts spiraling, but could do nothing to stop them.

Gordon didn’t register it at first, occupied with his own thoughts, but he felt his practically-numb hands fall onto the cool countertop. He blinked, looking down at them. Where did the chips go? They were -

_ POP _

A loud sound from next to Gordon made him yelp in alarm, flinching away from - oh, that was just Benrey. They’d placed their PSP on the far edge of the counter, stealing the salt and vinegar chips right out of Gordon’s hands without him noticing. They’d opened them by slamming an elbow on it against the counter, spilling broken shards of chips across the counter and floor. Gordon watched, heart pounding as Benrey tilted the smashed chip bag to face themselves, delicately opening it the rest of the way. They held the bag out to Tommy with an easy smile.

He’d opened it from the wrong side, Gordon’s brain supplied. Definitely an important factor to consider here.  _ Thanks, brain. Really working overtime. Appreciate it. _

Tommy broke character at the crushed chips being presented to him, meeting Benrey’s stare with a sheepish grin. What happened to the oppressive energy the guy was channeling, like, a moment before? Tommy reached over the counter between them and grabbed a broken chip, and Benrey pointedly  _ didn’t _ offer one to Gordon, instead leaning against the divider and grabbing one from the bag themselves.

Gordon would normally be offended at Benrey stealing his chips for the second time in so many hours (without ever offering one to him), but honestly? He was feeling  _ way  _ too unnerved to care.

Before Benrey brought the chip to their mouth, however, they caught sight of Gordon, pausing. They put the aluminum bag on the counter, leaning forward to get a better look at the man who was, to put it bluntly, well on his way to a full-on panic attack. Gordon could only stare, panting, not sure what they were after. He was  _ a bit preoccupied _ with trying to keep himself together. He balled his fists on the counter, trying to ground himself.

Benrey tilted their head. “dude. what’s wrong with your breathing. stoppit.” Benrey’s eyebrows knitted together as if Gordon’s reaction was anything other than expected. They’d just threatened to kill him, of  _ course _ he was getting worked up!

They refused to break eye contact, puzzling him out. “calm down maybe? gordon calmdownlilbit?” And before Gordon could even  _ attempt _ to react to those instructions, Benrey was singing color at him, a neon beam directly at his face. It blinded him in its intensity as it collided with his face, splitting apart in a firework of blue, some getting on his glasses, in his eyes, his nose, his  _ mouth _ ,  _ GROSS _ . Gordon reacted instinctively, coughing and spluttering, bringing a sleeve up to wipe his face -

And then the flavor kicked in, an almost  _ overwhelming _ amount of it, dear god, why was it  _ SWEET _ ? It tasted like sour candy, or artificial sweetener, almost sickeningly so. Not only that, but Gordon was surprised to find that, after only a few moments, his breathing was evening out, his brain making it’s way out of overdrive.  _ Whatever-it-was _ was still in his eyes, and he rubbed at them frantically, almost dislodging his glasses, managing to clear one eye enough to pin Benrey with a glare, as well as a “What the FUCK was that. What did you just do to me.”

Benrey simply watched this all happen, and at Gordon’s question, they popped the chip into their mouth. Their face screwed up, spitting out the chip with a  _ pluh _ . Gordon watched the chips’ descent to the floor, landing amidst its crushed brethren. Benrey,  _ not _ answering his question, snatched the bag of chips, holding it an inch away from their face, laser-focused.

“what the fuck  _ is _ these. these just taste like, fuckin’... why did you buy these, i trusted you to pick good and you pick bad? this is how you repay good friend benny? with shit-tier chips?”

It appeared as though they were trying to read the ingredients list, still grimacing, but they weren’t having much luck. The text on it was still upside-down, after all.

Gordon’s heart seemed to be calming down, which was just freaking him out more. He didn’t know what the blue shit was, but it was affecting him _ somehow _ . His tongue might have been going numb as well; hopefully he was just imagining that. “Benrey.  _ What did you just do to me _ .”

Said merperson was scraping at their own tongue with their teeth, attempting to get the acetic acid off of it, no doubt. Gordon’s hands weren’t shaking anymore, but that was solely due to the blue stuff.

At no response from Benrey, Gordon turned to Tommy. He swallowed nervously. “Tommy. What the _ fuck  _ was that. I’m freaking out here.” Although his body was kicked out of its fight-or-flight response, Gordon was still  _ very concerned _ about whatever chemical Benrey had forcibly given him.

Tommy, who was back to his chipper self, was quick to assure him. “Don’t worry, Mr. Freeman! Benrey’s- Benrey just- that was just the, uh, B-Black Mesa Sweet Voice ™ ! It’s really helpful for- for- in lots of situations!”

“Okay, yes, I know that much, the Sweet Voice, that’s  _ really cool and all, _ ” Gordon slapped both hands on the counter, distressed. They landed on some of the broken chips that were there (courtesy of Benrey), digging into his palms. _ “ _ What the fuck  _ is _ it. What did it  _ do _ to me.”

“That was just blue! Regular, um, blue- it just means calm down. That one doesn’t... really rhyme, at all.”

Gordon was about to lose his mind. He tugged at his hair, exasperated. If he got some chip dust in his hair, he didn’t notice. “They  _ rhyme _ ? What does  _ that  _ mean? Why would it  _ rhyme? _ ”

Tommy didn’t react for a moment, presumably thinking it over. Several moments. Gordon looked over at Benrey, hoping maybe they would answer instead, but no. They were back in the corner, crouched in front of Sunkist with a chip in hand. They held it in front of her nose, but she didn’t seem too interested. She sniffed it politely for a moment, before attempting to lick Benrey’s face, who recoiled in surprise, almost falling over. Apparently, they were still getting used to her.

Gordon tore his gaze away from them and was just about to speak again when Tommy responded with, “Well they don’t ALL, rhyme, it’s- it’s kind of subjective? It really depends on the situation.”

Gordon shook his head, whatever, that wasn’t worth questioning at this point. At least he knew he wasn’t dying now. Well, dying from sweet voice overdose, at least.

Gordon glanced between the two of them. The sudden switch in atmosphere had him feeling a little out of his depth. He cleared his throat. “So like. Are we… good? You’re not gonna kill me then?”

Tommy tilted his head, considering. He eventually shrugged, smiling. “I guess we’ll find out!”

Gordon let out a shaky breath.  _ That _ wasn’t reassuring in the slightest, but he’d take what he could get. It was a bit unnerving how Tommy could threaten him while smiling all the while. Why was he so… cheerful? Then again, Tommy seemed to just be a cheerful guy in general.

“Okay, so…” Gordon chose his words carefully, tapping his fingers together. “Do you mind giving me a quick run-down on the situation? I feel like I’m very much in the dark about,” he gestured in the general direction of Benrey, Tommy... and Sunkist for good measure, “all this. Everything, basically. Did I hear that Coomer and Darnold were involved?  _ And _ Bubby?”

Tommy nodded enthusiastically. Apparently, this was not new information. “Yeah! We weren’t sure if we could, um, trust you, at first. So keeping you in the dark was, we thought, the easiest way to keep everyone safe. Un- Until we could figure out a way to. Determine your trustworthiness.” Tommy tapped a spotted finger on the counter, hesitating. “I’m not- One thing I’m not sure about is how you found out about Benrey, though. H-How did that happen?” He tilted his head, curious.

“yeah, how DID that happen, huh?” Gordon startled, finding Benrey once again leaning into his personal space. Gordon backed up a few steps, towards the door. “y’d better have a… reeeeal good explanation for breakin’ my stealth combo. ruining our 100% run. sabotage-eurrr.” Benrey clicked their tongue, shaking their head and crossing their arms. As they did so, however, they tilted the bag of chips they were still holding, and the rest of them tumbled out of the bag and onto the floor. Benrey watched them with a passive expression on their face, before turning back to Gordon as if nothing happened.

“Benr- you were there! You saw what happened! I don’t-” Gordon huffed, recentering himself. It wasn’t worth arguing with Benrey, they’d wasted enough time.

He turned to Tommy again, gesturing with both hands. “ _ Basically _ , I saw something moving in the water, I dropped a vial of bug juice- you know bug juice? I still don’t know why we call it that.”

Tommy nodded, but didn’t interrupt.

“Yeah- I smashed one on the catwalk by accident, and when the water lit up fucking  _ everything _ in a fifty-mile radius Benrey was just- there. Just kinda… hangin’ out in the water.” Gordon frowned, looking up at Benrey, who was now sitting on the front edge of the counter, on the far side of where Tommy was standing.

Gordon wasn’t sure exactly when they got there, but didn’t question that. “What _ were _ you doing, Benrey? If this is all some ‘big secret’,” he made air-quotes, “that you don’t want people to find out about, why would you risk blowing your cover like that?”

Benrey scoffed, rolling their eyes. “nooo, stupid.  _ you  _ were the one who was busy being a clumsy-boy. ‘s not  _ my _ fault you don’t know how to work the controls. maybe git gud? don’t skip the tutorial next time? huh?” Benrey put their hands on their hips, a not-so-subtle attempt to deflect the blame onto Gordon.

The man crossed his arms, pinning him with a skeptical look. “Alright. What’s the  _ real _ reason.”

Benrey sighed, frowning and looking away. They refused to meet Gordon’s eyes, looking down at the scattered chips spread all over the floor of the store. Sunkist was taking the time to nudge them into a neat little pile, for easy cleanup. What a good girl.

Tommy put a gentle hand on Benrey’s own, his face a mask of concern. “Benrey. We asked you to stay away from him until we- we could all figure this out.”

The merperson wilted at Tommy’s disappointed tone, crossing their arms. They kept their resolve for several seconds, mouth turned to the side, but were no match for Tommy’s gentle-yet-firm insistence.

Benrey looked up at the ceiling, letting out a drawn-out groan.

“it’s… it’s cuz it’s boring as  _ shit _ out there, man. fuckin’, like…” They leaned back until they were practically laying on the counter. Gordon was surprised it hadn’t collapsed under his weight. “we had a great thing, i’d hang out with the rest of the science team, was all chill. then  _ this guy _ had to show up,” gesturing with an open hand at Gordon.

Oh so this was HIS fault, still? He tried to speak, to defend himself, but was cut off by Benrey again.

“fuckin’ ruining the vibes, man. havin’ to keep track of time n’ shit, leave every twenty-minutes-or-whateverrr... worst stealth mission ever. think i got a watch out there? no. what ‘m i supposed to do for the. um. night hours. don’t even fucking have my PSP half the time, gotta plug it in, ‘n fffuckin multiplayer doesn’t even. work cause i gotta be within uhhh. wifispot. wifi range. ocean don’t got wifi yet. major oversight by the devs.”

Gordon scrubbed a hand over his face, at a loss. “So you risked… getting found out. Whatever that entails. Because you were  _ bored _ ? Because you didn’t have your PSP? I don’t- what does that  _ mean _ , like-”

“no, okay so- like. okay. listen.” Benrey didn’t move other than to hold up a pointed finger, vaguely in Gordon’s direction. “it’s fine.”

Gordon had NO idea what train of logic Benrey was on, and therefore didn’t have any idea on how to respond.

After a few moments of silence, Tommy leaned over Benrey to look them in the face. His smile was gone, replaced by a concerned frown. “Benrey... you can’t- w- we asked you not to hang out near the lab with Mr. Freeman there! It takes- we do a lot of work to make sure Black Mesa doesn’t find out about us, like a  _ lot  _ of work, you  _ can’t _ just go putting us all in danger because you’re bored! That’s not how this works! Think about the others!”

Benrey wilted further at Tommy’s words, once again refusing to look at him. It took him a few false starts to get the words out. “i-” Benrey paused. “i couldn’t- i wouldn’t have been seen  _ at all _ if he’d just- not-  _ urgh _ .” They finally sat up, begrudgingly, hunching over and rubbing their own arms through the lab coat. “-i didn’t  _ mean _ to.”

Tommy sighed, giving them a comforting pat on the shoulder. “...Yeah. Now we got some- some explaining to do.”

He addressed Gordon finally, who had been mostly quiet, not wanting to interrupt whatever was going on there. Benrey seemed to be taking to heart how bad this could have turned out, at least.

Tommy folded his hands in front of him, steeling himself. “Gordon. Black Mesa  _ can’t know _ . About- about  _ any _ of this. If they find out any of the shit we tell you, well, Dr. Bubby and Dr. Coomer… they’ll have it worse than the rest of us. And possibly Darnold, I don’t know.

“So! Easy stuff, I-I guess, um… merfolk… exist. We don’t really call  _ ourselves _ that, um… there are a lot of terms that people use,” Tommy listed a few on his fingers, “mermaids, merfolk, sirens, um… not- not all of them are, like. Accurate?”

“yeah, like the uhhh…” Benrey chimed in, smacking their lips, “the skin thing that you got,” and then failed to elaborate.

Gordon blinked at them, thrown for a loop for what felt like the hundredth time.

“... _ Skin thing? _ ” He asked tentatively.

“Yeah, the seal pelt myth, um... you know about selkies? That’s- I’ve never heard about that  _ actually _ happening. It might  _ not _ be a myth,  _ I’ve _ never met a selkie, I don’t know if they’re real or not, or- or how they would remove their pelts. For me it’s the same as the rest of us, where you just- touch water and- and then you get your true form back.”

Gordon was trying to process all of this. “So… to  _ transform _ … you just have to _ touch water _ ? That sounds…  _ wildly  _ inconvenient.” He scratched at his cheek, incredulous. “But like, what if it rains? Or you spill something on yourself? Or, fucking, you grab a drink or something and  _ oh shit, condensation _ , like… how…? That wouldn’t  _ work _ , would it?”

Tommy laughed nervously. “Yeah, it’s… inconvenient at times, but there’s not really a way around it, as far as I can tell… gloves don’t really fit too great… that’s uh, the hardest thing to hide, really.” Tommy held up his hand, displaying both sides. Just like Benrey’s, the webbing extended between each finger farther than would be considered normal for most, and then of course there were the spots. “That’s one thing you can’t control.” He shrugged. “The best we can do is- is look out for each other, and it’s worked alright so far!”

...Fair enough. There was one thing Gordon was wondering about, just to satisfy his own curiosity.

“I hope this isn’t rude to ask, but what…  _ is  _ Benrey? Like, what species? They’ve got spikes, and venom, and stripes…“

“what. no i don’t. you lying again?”

“Not  _ right now _ , fucking- if you won’t tell me, I was hoping  _ someone _ could give me a straight answer at least.”

Tommy tilted his head at Benrey. “You’re some sort of- of lionfish, right? I forgot what kind, you told me before…”

“huh? yeah, that’s me… i’m the uhhh. terror of the sea. devil firefish- devil- um, you know. look out. might stab ya,” they threatened while grinning, despite the lack of anything capable of stabbing anyone with. The lab coat that dwarfed their frame wasn’t helping their intimidation factor either.

Gordon looked Benrey over, befuddled. He couldn’t see a single barb or spine anywhere, not to mention... “as far as I’m aware, lionfish aren’t grey. Why are you grey?”

They shrugged, picking at their flat teeth. “red’s not my color, my guy. can you see me wearing red? psh. nooo thank you. too loud a color. hurts eyes.”

That would have to do, he couldn’t spend too long questioning every little thing. At least Gordon got  _ some  _ answers out of that. “So Tommy… what are you, then?” All Gordon had to go off of was the dark smattering of spots on his hands, which wasn’t telling him much.

Tommy perked up. “I’m a harbor seal! Um… in this form it’s kind of hard to tell, which is, good I think. Throws off suspicion, as long as- as I do my best to hide my hands. But you already know about them, so it’s okay! Benrey might need to put some work in to- to hide their appearance.”

Gordon hummed, thinking. “It’s a bit hot here for seals, isn’t it? Don’t they normally live farther north?”

Tommy nodded. “Yeah, sometimes the heat can be a bit much, and I do miss the cold weather, but… I- I don’t go swimming too often, and I’ve got Sunkist, Darnold and Benrey to keep me company, and- and Bubby and Coomer, of course!”

Gordon was reminded of the giant golden retriever, who had gone back to laying in her plush dog bed behind Tommy. Gordon pointed at her, only half-joking when he asked, “So is she, like, in disguise as well? Is she secretly half-octopus or something?”

Tommy looked surprised for a moment, and then he giggled. “Wh- no, nothing like that! She’s just a normal dog, well, not exactly-” Tommy paused, thinking. “She  _ started _ as a pet project, I was hoping to um, improve on the dog model, and I did, but- I didn’t want to stop there, I felt like I owed it to her to put in my all. So after a lot of work, now she’s basically immortal! I’ve made the perfect dog!”

Gordon blinked, looking over at the said dog, who had begun to snore softly. She  _ did  _ look perfect, as far as Gordon could tell. Gordon didn’t know enough about dogs (immortal or otherwise) to dispute that.

“We’re getting off track again!” Tommy exclaimed, making Gordon jump. “Do you have any other um, immediate questions?”

Gordon thought for a moment, hand on his chin. There were several things he was wondering about in particular. “How do the rest of the guys fit into this? Are they all mer… creatures as well? And what is Black Mesa doing out here? Why did they send  _ me  _ here?”

Tommy blinked at him. Whoops, maybe that was too many questions to throw at him at once.

Gordon adjusted his glasses, smiling apologetically. “Sorry, my bad. Um, first thing, maybe? The guys?”

“Well… I don’t- I don’t know how much of this is my story to tell, really… I know that Dr. Coomer and Dr. Bubby came from Black Mesa, they were being held in the main facility in- in New Mexico... against their will, um… I think- yeah, they told me they were created there. I met them… shortly after I met Darnold. They told me about their daring escape together, it must have been really tough. Black Mesa’s been… well.” Tommy scratched at his face nervously. “They don’t really talk about it much, but Black Mesa’s… not following OSHA guidelines, and… they consider people- people like us to not be… human enough to have rights.” 

“That’s horrible.” Gordon blurted out before he could stop himself, both of them raising their heads to look at him. “What do you mean not human enough? You can think and talk and reason, that sounds plenty human to me.”

Tommy laughed humorlessly, a blush on his cheeks. “Yeah, not- not everyone thinks that. You hear stories, um, stories about how merfolk will drag people into the ocean to drown them, and- and other things, but it’s not true, it’s all just propaganda. We’re not mean, we just want to be left  _ alone _ , we just want to live our lives in peace.” Tommy balled his fists, frustration evident on his face. “I wish… I wish we could  _ do something _ to stop Black Mesa but... we have to look out for ourselves first. If we get found out, I’d have to leave Sunkist and Darnold, and… I couldn’t do that to them, not to mention that- that Bubby and Coomer are freshwater species, they’d be stuck, they could even get captured again, and- and-” He sighed heavily, catching himself.

There was a long stretch of silence, before Tommy continued quietly, “Black- Black Mesa, um. They can’t know about us. We’ve been- er, me, Dr. Coomer and Dr. Bubby, that is- forging documents. All of them. We’ve modified the water testing equipment. All the info that Black Mesa is ever going to get from here is falsified. We’ve done everything we can to- to delay them finding out. So when  _ you _ showed up, it… we- we thought it was over.”

Tommy bit his lip, staring down at the countertop at his hands. They were trembling. Benrey sat up, looking at Tommy, hesitating. They placed a tentative hand on top of Tommy’s own, squeezing it gently. It seemed almost out of character that they weren’t saying something asinine or crass, instead attempting to offer genuine support.

Tommy huffed out a breathy laugh, turning his head to smile at them. “Thanks, Benrey, I’ll- I’ll be okay I think.”

Benrey gave him a thumbs up. “s’all good, my man. gotta look out for my best homie, you know?” Before Gordon could blink, the thumbs up was exchanged for another ‘I love you’ in sign, and then Benrey had their PSP in hand. They keeled over slightly so they were leaning their head on Tommy’s shoulder, a silent show of support.

Tommy inhaled shakily, and exhaled it all in a soft  _ whoosh _ of air.

It appeared as though Benrey’s kind words had helped, and Tommy continued. “Okay… what was I saying? Oh yes, um- so Black Mesa is- we thought we fucked up, we thought we must have made a mistake, and that you were here to- to turn us in. But you… weren’t? And- we didn’t know- we couldn’t tell  _ why  _ you were sent, and apparently you didn’t know either, which. Doesn’t sound like a good thing? But um.” Tommy looked Gordon in the eyes. “If you were to…  _ help  _ us, with- with forging documents, and staying hidden… that would be the best-case scenario. I think. Out of all the options, um… at hand.”

Gordon was afraid to ask, but was morbidly curious, and couldn’t help himself. “I’m assuming the other options involve threatening me with death? Or hell, skipping that altogether and just killing me outright?”

“…yeah,” Tommy said sheepishly with a guilty smile. “You seem… okay though. I think- I’ll have to ask the others, but I think- I think we can trust you. Um- was there anything else? I shouldn’t have the store closed for  _ too _ long, people might- they might get suspicious. Or impatient. And Benrey needs some more clothes than just a big lab coat.”

Benrey made a noise of protest, but didn’t pull their gaze away from their PSP, wrapped up in whatever was going on on-screen.

Gordon  _ did _ have more questions, but he supposed they could wait until later. Maybe later he’d ask Benrey some stuff, and they would throw him a bone and answer some questions, for once. “Nah, we can deal with all that later. Benrey, you uh, still coming with me?”

“hell yell, dude you heard me, i gotta. drain all the power from your house. drive up that power bill, wooo.” Benrey responded in complete monotone. They hopped off the counter, eyes still focused on their game.

Gordon nodded, stretching out his shoulders. He had to get home and eat, sleep, and change his clothes.  _ And _ deal with Benrey, which could go one of two ways. Poorly or possibly-not-poorly.

“Well, uh… I guess we’ll talk to you later, Tommy. Stay outta trouble, all that.” He offered a parting wave, and Tommy returned it, albeit ten times more enthusiastically.

“Yeah! It was nice to finally meet you! Don’t make me regret trusting you, or- or you’ll regret it!” He said cheerfully, despite the threatening words.

That made him laugh, even if it did have a hysterical edge to it. Gordon opened the door for Benrey, who, not paying attention, still ended up ramming their shoulder into the doorframe with an ‘ow’. Gordon rolled his eyes, flipping the store sign back to ‘open’, and followed them out. Maybe this would turn out okay after all.

He just hoped Benrey wouldn’t destroy his house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason why Tommy was acting all mean n’ stuff: he was trying to channel threatening G-Man vibes, I was going to explain that, and then. I didn’t. So. yeah.  
> Sorry if this is like super rambly/didn’t answer a lot of questions, I kinda want to break it up a bit. We gotta get back into. shenanigans.  
> ALSO FANART? WE GOT FANART? I'M SO PUMPED ABOUT IT AAAAA  
> We got one from [too_because](https://twitter.com/too_because) (Adyn) on twitter!!! Thank u thank u thank u [look at it here!!!](https://twitter.com/too_because/status/1286281097844752384?s=20)  
> We got one from one of my beta writers!!! [Heeere!!!](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/726209731076685920/738120520293417032/image0.jpg?width=535&height=535) Love the little tooth very nice thank u <3  
> Oh and I also did another ([it's here](https://tunascribbles.tumblr.com/post/624417329613307904/merbenrey-from-my-fic-fish-boyfriend-in-my)) ([also on twitter if that's your thing!](https://twitter.com/tunyahghost/status/1286395375679467521?s=20))


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I confided in you about what was supposed to happen in this chapter. That will maybe happen next chapter.  
> okay thank you!!!  
> 

Gordon shut the car door behind him, turning on the ignition after only one false start. He looked out the passenger side window, rolling his eyes at Benrey who had their gaze fixed firmly on their PSP as they walked. He impatiently tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, waiting for Benrey to hurry up so they could _go_. After a few moments where Benrey didn’t show any signs of picking up the pace, Gordon huffed, yelling through the open window at them, “Hurry the fuck _UP_ , Benrey. We gotta go, watch the road.”

Benrey, too busy focusing, did _not_ heed his advice. This caused them to misjudge where the curb dipped, and they almost fell into the road, squawking. They kept a resolute hold on the PSP, to their credit. The merperson glared down at the curb in retaliation, blowing air out their nose and turning back to their device. Their steps resumed, slower than Gordon felt was necessary, but they _did_ look up occasionally to make sure no stray concrete was going to crop up and trip them, so. Small victories, at least.

Gordon’s ears picked up cheerful, bubbly music coming from the device as they approached. They must have turned up the volume again at some point.

Once Benrey made it to the car (after entirely too long), they grappled blindly for the door handle, missing several times, to Gordon’s growing frustration. Gordon, who was getting _fed up_ and just wanted to _go home_ , leaned over and opened the door briskly. “Dude, _hurry up_ , you can mess around with that when we’re on the road.”

“nnn. hold on.” Benrey stood next to the open door, tilting the handheld device this way and that. Gordon was pretty sure the PSP didn’t _have_ tilt controls. He leaned over for a second time, swiping at Benrey to try and grab it, but they leaned away, _finally_ moving to get in the car. Gordon caught a glimpse at the effects flashing on the console and paused. He leaned over.

On-screen, he saw a brightly colored racing course among cartoonish, colorful go-karts.

“Is that Mario?” Gordon asked, bewildered. It sure _looked_ like Mario Kart. “How did you get a fucking Nintendo game to work on that thing?”

“...huh? that’s not mario. ’m playing as peach.” A corner was coming up in the course, and Benrey tilted the PSP in the _completely_ wrong direction, sending the princess directly off the edge of the course. “aw, man.” They frowned at it, shifting their grip to hold it in one hand. “‘m outta practice.” As they waited for their character to reappear, they clumsily buckled their seatbelt, then pinned Gordon with a slightly exasperated look. “we gonna go or not? you’re holding us up, man.”

He gave the merperson a frustrated, tight-lipped glare. “I was - You know what.” Gordon shook his head. “I _don’t_ care.” He shifted into gear, pulling out of the parking lot. He didn’t have the energy to deal with more Benrey sass today. Maybe he’d catch a break, _for once_ , and they’d be too engrossed in their game to bother him.

He merged onto the empty freeway, mentally cataloging all the new information he’d been trusted with. It was… a _lot_ to process. He’d have to be on his toes if Black Mesa came poking around. His reasons for being here were, admittedly, a bit of a mystery. They hadn’t _really_ told him much of anything, just sent him on his way with some paperwork and a pat on the back. Gordon hadn’t questioned it too much, and was almost glad for the opportunity to leave the main facility. Working underground kind of sucked. It was so easy to lose track of time without natural light, and there was always this terrible feeling in the back of your skull that you never _really_ knew what was going on behind the scenes. 

And _everyone_ knew you didn’t question Black Mesa.

Because you would never get answers.

You would only get problems.

But now… now might be his chance to get some answers. As long as they all kept up the low-profile that the guys had set up, and Gordon didn’t piss off any vindictive merperson, maybe he’d finally get the chance to figure out what was going on.

Not this instant, of course. Right now, Gordon was set on driving home, and passing out until his next shift started. He stepped on the gas. Passing out couldn’t come quickly enough.

-

By the time they made it into town, Gordon was feeling dead tired. After the long shift at the lab, as well as dealing with Benrey, AND dealing with what happened in the gas station, a quiet drive was _not_ helping him stay awake. It was a relief when he finally saw his house coming up. There was a gnawing pain in his stomach that he’d been trying to ignore up until this point as well. He’d have to eat something too, ugh. Either that, or wake up hungry later.

Although Black Mesa paid _relatively_ well, Gordon hadn’t been given much notice before he was transferred, so it wasn’t a _great_ house. It was kind of small, actually, a little weather-beaten, but that wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things. He lived alone anyway. Gordon didn’t think he needed _too_ much space, and he could handle a little bit of water dripping from the ceiling when it rained. There was a guest bedroom that hadn’t been slept in yet; he’d have to set it up for Joshie when he ended up staying for the summer, once kindergarten was over for the year. That would be coming up soon, now that he thought about it, perking up a little despite his exhaustion. Something to look forward to, for sure. God, it’d be nice to see his son again.

They both made it out of the car, with Benrey bothering to pause their game this time. They looked up, soaking in their surroundings for the first time, before sticking close behind Gordon, silent. They flicked the volume down in one quick motion, their eyes a bit wide as they looked around.

Gordon unlocked his front door, struggling to keep his eyes open. _Man_ , was this regular tired-ness, or related to the Sweet Voice? He shook his head, blinking a bit. He had to get Benrey settled in first. Then he could pass out.

“Alright, home sweet fuckin’ home, I gotta sit down. Wipe your feet off. Don’t break my shit.”

He waited for Benrey to follow him through the door, rubbing at his eyes. He kicked his still-damp shoes into the closet, if they grew mold… whatever. That would be a problem for future Gordon.

He groaned, “Benrey, is the blue shit gonna wear off eventually? I’m like dead on my feet here. Gordon tired. Gordon tired as hell.”

Some tension seemed to leave Benrey’s shoulders as soon as the door was fully shut. They pressed a button, unpausing their game. They nodded at Gordon’s question, not otherwise looking up. “hm? nah that’s just you being tired, probably. you c’n shut some of your brain off for a bit; it’s cool.”

Gordon didn’t bother coming up with anything to say to whatever the fuck they meant by _that_ , shaking his head and hanging his keys and wallet on the wall by the door. If he missed the hook a few times… no he didn’t.

“hey what’s the wifi password here. ‘ve gotta get my rank up.”

Gordon scrunched up his face, still trying not to fall asleep standing up. “Your rank up. In Mario Kart.”

“yeah. wifi please.” They held out their hand as if Gordon was going to physically give them the wifi. “thank you.”

Gordon gestured vaguely behind him. “‘S on the router. I’m gonna go eat somethin’ and... lay down. Hopefully.”

He shuffled away, not bothering to check if Benrey was headed in the right direction. He took a quick stop at the fridge, seeing if there was anything he could eat before becoming unconscious. Hm. There was some chili from... _maybe_ last night. That would have to do, he thought, eyes blurring. Even a sandwich sounded like too much work right now.

Gordon removed the plastic wrap from the top, shaking off the excess water onto the floor, tossing the bowl into the microwave. He peeked back into the other room, finding Benrey over by the wifi router, eyes flicking between their device and the numbers on the sticky note stuck to it, inputting the code. Every time they looked down, more of their hair fell into their face, despite the ponytail holding a good amount of it. When enough of it obscured their view, Benrey absently pushed their bangs aside with a hand, but as soon as their hand made contact, the hair made a surprising _crunch_ noise.

They froze, evidently not expecting this. They drew their hand away, before carefully touching it again. It was stiff and dried out, the buildup of old saltwater and tangles making it crusty, somehow even more of a rat’s nest than it was before.

Benrey pulled at the section of hair they were holding, and then tried carding their fingers through it. Their hand might have gotten an inch through, and then their hand was ensnared, going no further. Their upper lip curled up at it, and they attempted to rip their hand out of the knotted mess, getting stuck. No wonder their hair was so uneven, they’d almost torn some out with that move.

The microwaved beeped, causing Benrey to look over, catching Gordon looking at them for the third time in so many hours. They raised an eyebrow, as if they didn’t currently have a hand stuck in their messy fringe, placing the other one on their hip. “yo are you gonna quit starin’ at me? ‘s rude. i’ve already told you this.” They attempted to twist their hand out of their hair, but it was so tangled and stiff, it didn’t go very far. If anything, it just got more hopelessly ensnarled. Despite this, Benrey continued to pull, more and more aggressively.

Gordon sighed, waving a hand. “Stop, stop, you’re gonna wreck your hair. Hang on; I’ll help ya.” He reluctantly abandoned his newly-nuked chili, walking over to take a look at Benrey’s terrible hair situation. The merperson had the decency to look ever-so-slightly sheepish, and Gordon took them by the tangled wrist in an attempt to figure out how exactly to untangle them. Turning it this way and that, it was clear. They were well and truly stuck.

Benrey rolled their eyes, refusing to meet Gordon’s own. “m’not used to it being all. baddd. why d’you let it dry out like that? s’like one of those nets, can’t get _shit_ out of ‘em.”

Gordon let go of their wrist, tilting his head to look at it. Yeah, up close and in the light, he could see that it was _awful_. Some bits stuck up as if they had been struck by lightning, some bits looped over others, there were sticks and gravel just _there_ , was that a snail? No, just a seashell. Gordon gently brushed Benrey’s tangled fringe aside, to look them in the eyes. “I’m just going to take a _wild guess_. And say that you’ve never washed your hair before?”

Benrey tried to pull their hand away, although it didn't get far, still caught in the dark tangles. They let out a little hiss of pain, pulling away.

Gordon closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He’d take that as a no, that’s fine. “So… fuck.” He was so looking forward to having that chili. “ _Fine,_ Follow me, I guess. Leave your Mario there.”

Benrey scoffed, making air quotes, one of which was hardly decipherable through the tangles. “‘leave your mario there,’ _god_ you sound old. i’d say you have dilf energy, but i don’t even know if you have a kid.”

If Gordon had been drinking anything, he may have done a spit-take, but instead he choked on nothing, and he was sure his face was a few shades darker. Eventually he recovered enough to look behind him at Benrey, who was _still_ twisting and pulling at their trapped hand, to no avail. He pointed a finger at them, trying to keep a stern expression, stifling laughter. “Don’t - _ever_ call me that again.”

Benrey blinked, and their eyebrows knit together, pausing to think. “what, old?”

Gordon sighed heavily, looked up at the ceiling, hands folded together. Why were they like this. Why was this his life.

He walked down the hallway towards the bathroom, snagging a few towels from the hall closet on the way. He’d probably need at least one for Benrey’s absolute monstrosity that was their hair.

He flicked on the bathroom light, depositing the towels on the counter. He made sure Benrey was paying attention, pointing at the various bottles and things perched precariously on the tub’s edge.

“We got soaps and stuff. Don’t get ‘em in your eyes.” He tapped the spigot, “Water’s here, turn it _this way_ ,” he mimed twisting it clockwise, “for hot. it warms up super fast so don’t turn the knob all the way over.”

Benrey watches from the door with a neutral expression, eyes flicking over the shampoo bottles and the bar of soap, finally catching up with where Gordon was, frowning at the spout. “hot.” They then seemed to realize something, nodding sagely. “Oh. like the uh. orange. chips. cappassin.”

Gordon took a second to figure out what the fuck _that_ meant, finally realizing they were talking about the Cheetos from _hours_ earlier. “...no. _Not_ like that actually.”

Benrey didn’t make any move to get closer, so Gordon pulled the curtain to the side, turning on the water. Rushing water chugged out of the spigot, choppy at first before becoming a steady, yet loud, stream of water. Gordon stuck his hand in, testing the temperature. The water _had_ just been turned on, so it was still plenty cold. He flicked the excess water off of his hand, messing with the knobs again. He figured that Benrey would just end up burning themselves if they did it themselves.

A grey arm entered his vision, slowly reaching for the water. Gordon inhaled sharply, grabbing Benrey’s arm before it could make contact with the water, whipping around to glare at Benrey. “DUDE, you’re-” He cut himself off, realizing something.

They blinked at each other, before simultaneously looking down at Gordon’s hand wrapped around Benrey’s forearm. Gordon’s hand, which had been testing the temperature not a moment earlier, still dripping cold water. They looked back at each other, Benrey raising an eyebrow.

And then in a flurry of motion, Gordon was knocked flat on his back by a 20 foot tail _far_ too large for his tiny bathroom, surrounded by the displaced soap bars and shampoo bottles that had crashed around them both.

Benrey, sprawled out on the bathroom floor, raised their head from where it had collided with the floor. “bro. fucked up that you would do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't know any PSP games. and I didn't want to get details wrong. just say tommy got him that game and. didn't realize it was incompatible so he felt bad and jailbroke it or sumn
> 
> MORE ART!!! ART FROM SAMOSADUDE!!! I'M SORRY I FORGOT TO ADD IT ([IT'S HERE!](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/513226838827335680/740009073268752505/unknown.png))


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> how do you get a heavy-assed fishperson into a bath... well we're here to tell you...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Henlo. Chapter here for you. Thank.  
> MINOR TW: mentions of blood/injury. Quite minor but jic <3  
> I LOVE YOU OKAY ENJOY

Gordon groaned as he sat up, bringing a hand to press on the back of his head. He’d hit it pretty hard against the sink’s lower cabinet on his way down, but there wasn’t any blood, thankfully. It just hurt like hell, throbbing in time with his heartbeat.

It appeared as though Benrey had banged their head in a similar fashion, albeit on the floor. They watched him struggle to get out from under their tail with a raised eyebrow and squinted eyes, not attempting to shift their weight in the slightest. Their hand (now tipped with claws) was still lodged in their hair, against all odds.

“bro. we _literally_ just learned about the water thing.” They had to yell to be heard over the faucet. “did you not even listen to tommy? my main man tommy? you were even asking questions ‘n shit, were you just wasting his time?”

Gordon took a moment to wait for the pain in his head to go away before answering. He pushed at the massive weight that was Benrey’s tail, gingerly at first, and then with a little more insistence, and when _that_ wasn’t enough, with genuine effort. Even after Gordon shoved with all his might, the tail didn’t budge. He huffed, stilling and glaring at the smug merperson. “...No, _you_ were the one reaching for the water, man, I was trying to stop you.” He shook his head gently, testing if that made the pain worse. Nope, he was probably concussion-free, it seemed to be fading already.

Benrey crossed their arms, flaring their headfins in what Gordon _presumed_ was annoyance, until he saw a smile start to creep onto their face. One of the headfins didn’t go very far, their hand being in the way. They didn’t move from their position on the unforgiving linoleum. “ _you_ were the one who put water on me, so this is your fault. now you’re stuck, you gotta. do the time. gordon gay baby jail time.”

God, Gordon forgot how _heavy_ Benrey was in this form. He tried to wiggle his way out from underneath it, legs beginning to go numb. Their tail took up the majority of the bathroom, and, leaning forward, Gordon could see that the rest of it spilled a good way out into the hallway.

He looked back at the merperson, gesturing at the big fishtail that was showing no signs of moving, and preventing him from getting up. “Can you move? You’re crushing me here. I thought we were gonna deal with your hair.”

Benrey’s mouth pulled to the side smugly, showing off their once-again pointed teeth. “ _we_? you gonna help me or somethin’? very nice of you to offer. gonna give. good ol’ Benrey the 5 star spa… treatment.”

“Don’t make it weird. Please don’t make it weird.” Gordon replied, despondent. “Also how do you know what that _is_?”

Benrey gave the most half-hearted shrug that Gordon had ever seen, slumped on the floor as they were. “i ‘unno, Tommy tells me stuff.”

“You didn’t even know what an _owl_ was.” Gordon deadpans.

Benrey points at Gordon with their free hand. “‘s a bird. remember, you told me that.”

Gordon rolled his eyes, but couldn’t fault them there. “No, you know what, I changed my mind; you can wash your own hair.” He made to stand up, then realized belatedly that he was still unable to. “Uh. Let me up, though.”

“what nooo, you gotta live with your mistakes. you’re stuck here now. enjoy your new life on the floor with me.” Benrey leaned back, closing their eyes and resting their elbow against the wall. It didn’t look comfortable, but it seemed they were committed to this stupid bit. The bit being ‘not helping Gordon off the floor in the slightest’, as it was.

Gordon exhaled sharply in frustration, again trying to worm his way out, fruitlessly. By now, his legs were beginning to prickle with pins and needles. He wasn’t going to win this battle, it seemed. “Okay _fine_ ,” He relented. “I’ll help you, fuckin’- you gotta get off me first.” He gave the tail a tentative pat, then realized that could be taken in a weird way, pulling his hand away.

“hm, i dunno…” Benrey looked up at the ceiling. “it’s _your_ fault this happened. ‘think you should just chill for a minute. relax a mo’.”

“Benrey. Let me up.”

The merperson appeared to mull this over, letting out an exaggerated ‘hmmm’ and tapping their free hand on their chin. Gordon just gave them a weary look, conscious of the water being wasted as they sat there. Every second Benrey stalled just added more to his water bill.

“okay _fine_ yougotme. i’ll just-” Without warning, Benrey flipped themselves over, leaning forward and grabbing the edge of the tub, and suddenly Gordon could feel his legs again. They pulled themselves up with what looked like _tremendous_ effort, over the side and into it with a wet _thud_. Some of their tail followed, but most of it did not, arcing over the end of the basin. It stuck up comically into the air, the big fin on the end _just_ barely long enough to brush the linoleum floor, leaving streaks of water behind. Gordon hadn’t put the stopper in the bottom, so Benrey sat in a mostly-empty tub, the spray from the tub faucet hitting their tail.

Gordon rubbed at his legs, trying to get the pins and needles to go away before he stood up. He looked back at Benrey, who was still wearing the lab coat, and didn’t seem inclined to take it off. Well, it wasn’t like they were going to be able to remove it anyway with their hand stuck the way it was. Gordon stretched out his shoulders, stooping to pick up the shampoo first, placing it on the edge of the tub within arms’ reach. He leaned over Benrey and took the showerhead out from its anchor, preemptively switching it to the lowest setting. “Alright, sit up. Gotta get your hair wet first.”

Benrey repositioned themselves, mindful of their many sharp points now that Gordon was once again within arms’ reach. Once they were settled, Gordon pulled on the metal part that would reroute the water to the showerhead. Benrey blinked as the water suddenly disappeared from the tub’s lower spout, recoiling when it finally made its way out of the part Gordon was holding, louder than before. They held their free hand in front of their face, making a tense, uncomfortable sound. Their headfins were pinned back, one folding strangely against their arm that was stuck.

Gordon held the spray away from them, frowning in confusion. “What’sa matter? Afraid to get a little wet?” he teased. Were they just being dramatic? 

Benrey peeked through their fingers at him, the webbing between each finger making it very difficult to make out their annoyed expression. “no. s’ just real loud. n’ bright in here.”

Gordon blinked at that, thinking for a moment. He hazarded a guess that Benrey had sensitive hearing and vision, judging by the size of their headfins, as well as how reactive they were to noise and light. He used a hand to pull the curtain of the bathtub closed, cutting the intensity of the overhead light. While he couldn’t do much about the noise, this would at least block the light a bit. “That better?”

Benrey squinted past their hand, then lowered it, their face splitting into a shark-toothed smile. “oh yo, that _is_ gooder. thank you. i dunno why you all keep your lights on so bright, it’s pretty… pretty sucks actually.”

“Uh-huh. Yeah. I’m gonna get your hair wet now.” He twisted his wrist so the spray landed on the grinning merperson. They flinched, predictably, but after a few moments of getting used to the water, they leaned into it, humming contently. Gordon tried to aim it mostly around where Benrey’s hand was, _still_ tangled in their hair, hopefully not for much longer. It didn’t take too long for it to become fully soaked, and after a little finagling and a few snags, they finally, _finally_ got their hand free.

“Alright, jeez,” Gordon said, wiping a hand across his forehead, before immediately regretting it. Bad idea, now his forehead was all gross and wet. “Take out the ponytail holder, we gotta brush it out.” Gordon held out an open hand, looking away to locate the brush.

Benrey stared at Gordon’s proffered hand, blinking, before the words seemed to catch up with them. Their eyebrow were suddenly at their forehead, face overtaken with genuine concern, or… hurt, maybe? Their headfins were even pulled back a little.

“..what? no, but - “ A hand shot up to clutch at their hair, right around where the ponytail holder was, hidden by the black mass of wet hair. “you - you gave it to me. you said i could have it. i remember, you _said_ you had somethin’ for me and this was it.” They squeezed their hair in a fist, water being wrung out in the tight hold.

Gordon frowned, confused at Benrey’s wide-eyed look. Was their breathing picking up? He dropped his hand slowly, giving them a questioning look. “I’m gonna give it _back_ , it’s just going to get in the way of things. If you’re really _that_ worried about it you can just - ” He mimed putting it on his own wrist with a quick hand motion, mindful of the showerhead he was still holding.

Benrey’s eyebrows were drawn together, searching Gordon’s face for something. Without looking away from him, they dragged the ponytail holder out from their hair gently, snapping it onto their wrist as they were shown. They still eyed him with… what could have been suspicion. Gordon didn’t have any idea what _that_ was about.

“...You good, man?” He asked after a moment of hesitation. Did he do something wrong?

“you’re not taking it back. no take backsies.” Benrey deadpanned, almost a question.

“...No, dude. It’s just a ponytail holder. I don’t even want it.”

He glanced behind him, reaching for a brush that was still sitting abandoned on the floor amidst the rest of the mess. Finding it to be too far away, he shoved the showerhead into Benrey’s hands with a terse “hold this”. Benrey took it gingerly, as if they were afraid to break it. In the short amount of time it took for Gordon to lean down, pick up the brush and look back at Benrey, they were already aiming the stream of water into their unhinged jaw, water spilling out of the sides of their neck like twin waterfalls.

Gordon almost laughed at how out-of-nowhere _that_ was, staring at the strange display. It was almost mesmerizing, he had to shake his head to break the trance. “Okay while you do that, I’m gonna _try_ to brush this shit out, I’m sorry in advance if it hurts.”

He reached for some of Benrey’s hair, noticing that there was still a big dent in it from where the hairtie had held it together. Benrey’s eyes followed him, still occupied with holding the water up to his open jaws. It was unnerving to be watched so closely.

He was careful not to get his hands too close to the _massive_ row of spines protruding from Benrey’s back, as close as he was. Most of them were being held down by the thoroughly-soaked lab coat, but a few poked out just past the collar. Now that he knew they were poisonous - er, venomous - and full of _lionfish venom_ , he was going to do his damndest to avoid them.

He started by brushing the tips, the split ends - god, they were split to hell and back - parting _relatively_ easily, up to a point. He grabbed the conditioner, and yeah, he’d need a _lot_ of it. He started working it into the tangles, occasionally needing to steal the water from Benrey.

Although it took a lot of hair product - a LOT, Gordon’s hands would be smelling of green tea for _hours_ , probably - by the end Benrey’s hair was looking… manageable. Decent, even. He’d even managed to remove the seashell that had been stuck in there for who knows how long, placing it on the edge of the sink.

Benrey didn’t seem to be minding it, either. Gordon wasn’t sure if it was just the warmth or the steady pressure from the water, or maybe just the feeling of Gordon fussing over his hair, but at some point, Benrey had closed their eyes. Tension drained from their shoulders and back as the minutes went on, until Gordon was almost worried they were falling asleep. When the water ran clean and there were no stray bits of seaweed to be plucked out, Gordon figured they’d used up enough hot water for one day.

“Alright, we’re done.” Gordon said, stretching out his wrist. That was a _lot_ of brushing.

Benrey flicked open an eye, reaching up to feel their hair. Gordon laughed at the surprised look on their face. They stared at their hands, marveling at how easily they were able to twist and curl their clawed fingers through their hair with no fuss.

“yo, thank you. hair really needed a nerf, that snare trap is a killer.” Benrey met Gordon’s eyes with what looked like genuine gratitude, no matter how subtle.

Gordon was about to say something in return when Benrey’s eyes suddenly sharpened, grabbing Gordon’s arm with surprising intensity.

He yelped, jerking his arm away, but Benrey’s grip was absolute. Gordon’s heart leapt in his throat as Benrey peered at a spot on his forearm, bringing it inches away from their face.

“what’s that. s’at mine?” They squeezed his arm lightly, and the spot leaked a tiny amount of red.

Well. It seemed as though he’d been stabbed.

Gordon hadn’t even _noticed_ , preoccupied with thinking about the chili he had been denied earlier. Now that he was aware of it, a dull pain was beginning to spread from it, and it might have been a _tiny bit_ puffier than normal.

“It’s just a little poke, I’m sure it’s fiINE BENREY-”

They dragged him forwards with one hand, using the other to twist the spigot _all the way to hot_. They had evidently been paying attention earlier, deftly switching the water to the more concentrated bath spout, forcing Gordon’s tiny puncture underneath the rapidly-heating water. 

Gordon’s eyes widened. _What were they DOING -_

He tried to reason with them, tugging frantically at his arm.

“Benrey, _wait_ -”

“it’s gotta be hot, trust me,” they snapped, sarcasm worryingly absent.

Gordon shut his mouth, biting his lip as the water rapidly rose in temperature. Once it past a certain point, worryingly hot, Gordon tried to pull his arm away, again with no success.

“Benrey-” Gordon croaked, barely getting the name out past his fear-paralyzed lungs.

“ _trust me_.”

The water went well past the point of comfort, until it was practically scalding against his skin. Benrey continued to hold his arm under, the excess water running off and hitting them as well. They gritted their teeth at the uncomfortably high temperature, seemingly in the same boat. One of their hands hovered over the spigot, ready at a moment’s notice to change it back to cold.

“s’ gotta be. a hundred-ten...temperature gamerscore. degrees. soak it for like. 10 coconut mall speedruns. no glitch.” They squeezed his wrist for a moment, before hesitantly letting him go.

The water, blessedly, leveled out at an almost-unbearable-but-not-literally-burning amount of degrees. Gordon _hoped_ it was around 110. He had to harness all his willpower to keep his arm under the uncomfortably hot water, breathing tight in his chest. At least he knew Benrey wasn’t attempting to burn his arm off now, and he willed himself to calm down.

Benrey watched him for a moment to make sure he wasn’t about to mess with the temperature, satisfied when Gordon didn’t move to do so. They grabbed the edge of the tub, hoisting themselves up and over, landing on the linoleum along with several buckets-worth of water and a loud _thump_.

Well, at least if Gordon was going to be sopping wet again, it wasn’t with gross saltwater.

Benrey shook themself like a dog, but it didn’t do much about their long hair, and they wrung it out onto the bathroom floor. At this rate it was going to spread all the way to the hardwood in the kitchen.

“Dude, you’re gonna wreck my floors…” Gordon whined, leaning over to watch the growing puddle lazily run down the hallway.

Benrey dragged themself out of the bathroom, sliding easily along the linoleum, presumably towards the kitchen. Their tail folded over itself awkwardly as they wrestled past it and through the doorframe. Out of sight, they yelled “yo, you got any water holders? buckets or something?”

“Yeah, they’re-” Gordon was interrupted by what sounded like cabinets being flung open, and an alarming amount of crashing which may have been pots and pans. There was also a quiet ‘ow’.

“ugh, the _lower cabinet! By the sink!”_

“ _alright, calm down._ ” He heard a cabinet shut, and some more shuffling. After about a minute, Gordon could hear steps coming back down the hall. Benrey rounded the corner, having shucked the wet lab coat and put on… that was his old threadbare MIT sweater, and some sweatpants that Gordon vaguely recognized as his. The red sweatshirt was faded, and the T was hanging on by a thread, and it was WAY too big for Benrey. Somehow Benrey had gotten dry, transformed, and changed outfits within that short amount of time.

“heeere you go sir. one freesh bucket for you and your stabby arm. Stick it in there for a ‘lil bit.” They held an empty bucket out for Gordon with one hand, and in the other…

Gordon sighed. “Is that my chili. Are you _seriously_ eating my chili right now?” Gordon snatched the bucket from them, placing it with more force than necessary into the tub to catch the hot water. He wasn’t looking forward to soaking his arm for... however long Benrey had said.

Benrey chewed, watching the water hit Gordon’s now-slightly-puffy arm and land in the bucket. They blinked at being addressed. “hm? yeah you want some? ‘s good.” He held out the bowl of chili, which, by now, was probably lukewarm at best.

“Yeah, I know it’s good, that’s MY food, and it’s stone cold. This is the THIRD TIME you have stolen my food from me and I have known you for _less than a day_.”

Benrey paused, tilting their head. “so... no? i’m good with sharing, we can be some. share guys. some sharin dudes. ’m not a dude. but we can be sharin’ dudes.”

“You’ll share. _My_ food. Which is _mine_. With me.”

“yeah,” they pointed at Gordon’s wounded arm, “can’t exactly eat with that thing.” they grabbed the spoon, waving it around in the air.

Gordon tilted his head back to stare dejectedly at the ceiling. Why did he have to be right-handed. Why did he get stabbed in _that_ arm. Why did he get stabbed _at all_.

Gordon sighed heavily.

Well. He _was_ very hungry.

“...fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DON'T THINK THIS WILL CAUSE GORDON TO LOSE HIS ARM... DON'T WORRY...


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> stab aftercare  
> me: don't call it that  
> also me: I'm calling it that

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay, but I just started a new position at my job! I start at 3:30am every workday now! So flipping my sleep schedule was a little rough jhdjh but hopefully I'm past that now  
> okay thank u <3

Had it really been less than a day?

Gordon had said it on a whim, mouth running away from him (as per usual), but as he went over the last little while in his head…

He’d only actually ended up introducing himself to Benrey the night before.

...Huh.

Gordon pondered this as he took the spoon back from Benrey, not paying attention. They’d ended up relocating to the couch, Gordon awkwardly balancing the overfilled bucket in one hand on the way there. It was a challenge to keep his injured forearm _in_ the bucket, while also not dumping half of its contents on the floor with each step. Now they were sitting somewhat across from each other, the bucket next to him sunk slightly into the couch cushion. He chewed on his mouthful of cold chili.

Despite his currently occupied arm, Gordon adamantly refused to let Benrey spoonfeed him, that would be _embarrassing as hell._ He doubted that Benrey would care, not used to human etiquette and such, but it was a matter of saving his own pride, dammit. The merperson didn’t object to simply holding the bowl for them both, passing the spoon back and forth between them occasionally.

It only occurred to him now that either one of them could have _very easily_ grabbed another spoon.

Gordon handed the spoon back to them, peeking into the bucket that housed his stab wound. It was a little sore, but didn’t seem to be swelling anymore than it already had. He swished it around in the warm water, glad that the almost-scalding water had cooled down some.

“Hey - how long do I gotta soak this for? Also, probably should have asked this first, _am I in danger of dying_? Should I, like, take something for it?” He figured that if he was in any real danger, Benrey would tell him, but… they seemed forgetful at the best of times.

Black Mesa probably wasn’t going to cover any “I died from lionfish venom because I was distracted and also brought one into my house” bills.

At a lack of an immediate response, Gordon looked back over at Benrey, who had seemingly been shoveling as much chili into their mouth as possible in the short amount of time that Gordon wasn’t looking at them. Gordon frowned at their deer-in-the-headlights look, leaning over to snatch the spoon away from them and scooping some up for himself. He was a little aggressive about it, and in the process tipped the bucket slightly, spilling some water onto the couch cushion and onto his leg. They both stared at the dark spot on the fabric. Once again, Gordon was glad it had cooled down some.

“oh no look what you _did_ … illegal, how could you…” Benrey said, unmoving.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t be _eating all the chili_ , _my_ chili, in fact.” Gordon retorted, stuffing the spoon in his mouth. Another small annoyance, besides the obvious, was having to eat with his non-dominant hand. Today was just _not_ his day. “Are you gonna answer my question or not?”

Benrey, who had been distractedly picking at the hair tie on their wrist, blinked and looked over, finally registering his earlier question. 

“i dunno, is the stab debuff gone yet?”

Gordon raised an eyebrow, peering into the bucket again. He could clearly still see the mark where the spine had entered his arm, although it was no longer an angry red. “I mean - the stab part is still definitely there. But it’s not hurting as much anymore.” He shifted, the water soaking his pant leg growing uncomfortably cold. “Hold on, how did you know that hot water would… neutralize it? The poison, I mean.”

“venom.”

“ _Whatever_. I meant that that’s kind of a _specific thing_ , to just _happen_ to know about.”

Now it was Benrey’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “dude, i’d be a pretty shitty mer if i didn’t know how to un-venomize someone. you think you’re the first person i’ve stabbed? first blood this match? nah.” They picked at their teeth, seemingly annoyed by them. Gordon wondered what it must feel like to have to talk with a new set of teeth. “i ‘unno, wait like, two more minutes.”

Gordon nodded, leaning over to scoop another spoonful of chili, careful this time to not move the bucket. Benrey watched him, then at the last second pulled the bowl closer to themself, making Gordon miss completely. Gordon’s eyes flicked up to pin them with a look of irritation, before quickly jabbing at the bowl again before Benrey could stop him.

No luck, Benrey had seemingly predicted a move like that, snatching the spoon away from Gordon’s hand. Gordon let out an exasperated breath. Now he had _no_ spoon and _no_ bowl. And Benrey was scarfing down the last bit of chili. Gordon crossed his arms, or attempted to. He realized that he physically could not do so with his arm in the bucket, and settled for stuffing his free hand in his pocket, sulking.

“Dude, I’ve had a long day, I’m tired of you fucking with me.” It probably hadn’t been two minutes yet, but he shook out his injured arm, the excess water dripping off of it. “So do I need like a painkiller? Is this gonna suck for the next little while?”

Benrey gave him a questioning look, as subtle as it was. “suck what.”

“Oh my _god_ shut up you know what I mean.”

Benrey snickered, waving him over. Gordon reluctantly moved closer and held out his arm, unsure of how this might go.

Benrey held Gordon’s no-longer-swollen forearm with gentle hands, turning it this way and that. They pressed a finger just below the puncture wound, gentle but firm. “this hurt at all?”

Gordon shook his head.

Benrey moved it an inch to the right, “here?”

Again, a shake of the head.

Benrey nodded, looking over his arm again. Gordon wasn’t sure what they were looking for, but after a few moments of scrutinizing, Benrey seemed at ease, gently slapping Gordon's arm and pulling away, satisfied. “yeah, looks good. patch ‘er up, mint condition, still in-box, bro. want me to?”

“Uh... sure.” Gordon responded, hesitantly.

“cool.” Benrey grabbed his arm again, and before Gordon had the chance to pull away, his arm was suddenly enveloped in glowy phantasmal colors. Benrey sung a string of Sweet Voice notes directly at Gordon’s wound, where the combined teal-and-green seemed to stick, before fading, presumably being absorbed by Gordon’s arm.

“DUDE, FUCKING -“ He snatched his arm away, frantically shaking it out in an effort to do _something_ about the foreign chemicals being absorbed into his wound, and, by extension, his bloodstream. When that did absolutely nothing, he rubbed at it with his other hand, but stopped when he felt nothing but smooth skin. Removing his hand, he could see his freckled arm, and the lack of any noticeable injury.

It was like he’d never even been stabbed in the first place.

Gordon willed his breathing to slow, blinking rapidly at Benrey, who simply watched.

“you okay? gordon stabman no longer stabbed? back to his regular old…not-stabbied self?”

He looked back at his arm, then again at Benrey, his mind working a mile a minute. “So you - you can just heal people. That’s just - that’s just _a thing_ you can do.”

“...yeah, man. what’s wrong with that.”

Gordon laughs shakily, a bit hysterical. “No it’s just, I wasn’t expecting that shit at _all_ , man. Fuck. Warn a guy next time.”

“whuh - i did. i literally did. i asked if you wanted me to fix it.” Benrey said, eyebrows drawn together.

Well, they had him there. Gordon had just misunderstood completely. “I thought you were going to grab, like, a bandaid or some shit.” At Benrey’s customary blank look, he elaborated with, “like you wrap it up so it doesn’t get infected, wait for it to heal.”

“...you _wait_? why would you _wait_ , just get that shit over with. speedrun.” 

“ _What_ is with you and speedr - _we don’t have the fucking ‘Sweet Voice’_! The best we got is maybe some... Neosporin or whatever. Maybe a painkiller.”

“that’s _so dumb_.” they crossed their arms at him, nonplussed. “just make some? just do it? easy as pie?”

Despite himself, Gordon giggled, running an exasperated hand through his hair. “That’s _not_. How it works, dude. I wish it was! I wish I had - what was that, a _healing beam_?”

“yeah. teal to green? healing beam. aces, dude.”

Yeah, sure. Why not.

“Is there… anything else it can do? Is that why Black Mesa is… after you? They want the healing… stuff?”

Benrey shrugged. “i mean, probably? s’ whatever, just gotta be careful i guess.” They pulled the hair tie off their wrist, fiddling with it. “can’t really. do much ‘cept try and stay on the down-low. sweet voice is uh. pretty useful but the mesa’s just… sucks.” 

Gordon nodded sleepily, his energy flagging as the adrenaline from the scare earlier left him. On one hand, if humankind had access to _whatever_ the Sweet Voice was, modern medicine could be advanced by months, years, _decades_ even. But on the other hand, Black Mesa… Black Mesa would almost certainly privatize it, or sell it off to the highest bidder. Not to mention how they might go about getting it. Gordon doubted they’d be asking the mers nicely for it. He was reminded of what Tommy had said, about how Coomer and Bubby had _escaped_ somehow, and wondered if there were maybe any others that were being kept there. He’d have to be sure to ask one of them later.

Gordon was pulled from his thoughts by the same cheerful, energetic music from earlier, looking over to see Benrey splayed out, taking up the whole couch while fully immersed in their PSP.

Now that his arm was more-or-less better, and the chili was all _gone_ (regrettably), he figured now would be a good time to finally catch some Zs before his next shift at the lab. He’d need them if he was going to have any hope of staying awake.

“Benrey. Can I trust you not to break my shit if I go and zonk out for like. Seven hours. I’m fucking dying here, I need to go and be unconscious for a little bit.”

Benrey nodded once, eyes not leaving the screen on their device. They _did_ turn down the volume some though, which was... strangely considerate for them.

That was good enough for Gordon. He was too tired to care.

He took a quick detour, dumping the now room-temperature bucket of water into the bathtub, grimacing at the sheer amount of water on the floor. He tossed the towels from earlier onto the floor, and they did a decent job of soaking up a majority of the water. Good enough. He got ready for bed, brushing his teeth, throwing his clothes in the laundry hamper for Future-Gordon to deal with. If the house ended up smelling overwhelmingly of algae and saltwater when he woke up... he could just blame Benrey.

He’d have to pack a double lunch for next shift, he thought, rubbing a tired eye. Maybe he could pick something up for the both of them -

Wait.

He frowned. Why was he suddenly worried about what Benrey was going to eat? The fucker was plenty capable of feeding themselves. They’d also eaten most of his chili. The bastard.

He shook his head. Too tired to think about that right now.

Gordon was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

-

Benry’s eyes flicked up at the sound of snoring coming from down the hallway. Seems he really was asleep, then. It sounded almost painful, how loudly he was snoring. Did all humans do that? Lungs were _weird_ , not at all like the smooth, near-constant pull of water through gills. They weren’t sure that they liked it. Remembering to breathe was a pain.

The battery indicator light switched over, low already. They took a cursory look around, not finding the charging cord. Fuck, they must have left it in the... vehicle. Gordon’s car, which was locked. They frowned, finishing the track in not-quite record time once again (they still got first place, of course. For your information).

Benry placed the PSP on the arm of the couch in plain sight, they _couldn’t_ forget it. Gifts were important, and Tommy had gotten them that.

They pulled up a sleeve to rub a finger at the blue hair tie, still securely on their wrist. They liked being able to see it, to be absolutely sure that it was still there. Benry understood that it was meant to keep their hair out of their face, it _was_ called a hair tie, but they did _not_ want to lose it. So on their wrist it would stay.

Benry thought it was kind of odd for Gordon to give them what felt like a very fragile gift, but. Benry didn’t understand most of human culture anyway. Lots of arbitrary, stupid, confusing rules that they didn’t care to think about. Humans couldn’t even do Sweet Voice. Gordon didn’t even _try_ to, it looked like. It was fuckin weird.

They slouched, bored already, sinking into the couch cushions. The water Gordon had spilled earlier (like some sorta _clumsyboy_ ) had dried up at some point, leaving no trace, leaving the entire couch free for them to sprawl.

Benry pulled the hoodie tighter around themselves, enjoying the soft, warm texture. It smelled nice. Maybe Gordon had already worn it, but it was... comforting, or something. 

Was that weird? Humans were weird. Coomer had told them once that a humans’ sense of smell wasn’t nearly as developed as a mers, and Benry could _kind of_ understand that, now that they had experience being both. It was still _there_ , though. It’s not like their sense of smell just _went away completely_. 

They continued to hear snoring from down the hall. Would Gordon take offense if they went and closed the door?

Ugh, there were so many _rules_. They should just say ‘fuck it’ and not care.

Where was the charger?

Oh yeah, probably in the car.

They stood up, nearly stumbling over at the change in their center of gravity. God, legs were weird. They weren’t sure they liked them. _Two of them_? That’s too many to keep track of, thank you.

Maybe Gordon had a compatible charger? They shuffled through the living room, searching through drawers, moving stray papers, peering under the coffee table. Nothing immediate jumped out at them.

They made their way methodically through the house, if anything this would at least be something to do for the next little bit. They needed _some_ distraction, anything.

In the kitchen they found a spare cord, but it was the wrong color, and didn’t look like it’d fit, the port being much too small. Fuck. Benry looked in another drawer, finding some metal forks and spoons. They liked how shiny they were, but left them alone.

They didn’t know how to get into Gordon’s _car_ , though. How long did he say he’d be unconscious for? Some hours?

That was longer than minutes. They’d be bored to death by then.

Opening another drawer revealed a few small, shiny, coins. They picked them up, taking a few tries. Having shorter claws was going to take some getting used to.

Humans used these to buy shit, right? Gordon had used some sort of plastic (dedit? crebit?) card while buying the chips before, but this should… also work?

Simple, they’d go to… _a store_ , ask for a charger, and give them the moneys for it. Simple simple easy easy. Tutorial shit.

They scooped up as many as there were in the drawer, putting the small handful into their hoodie’s pocket. Maybe humans and their clothing had some perks after all, Benry thought. Pockets were good, at least.

They tiptoed through the house, avoiding the wet towels on the floor, slipping outside into the daylight.

Wasn’t worth waking him up, humans needed their rest.

They’d be back before Gordon woke up, anyway.

Probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:3c it's probably fine.  
> Y'all get a tiny Benrey POV... as a treat... that probably won't happen often though jdhdhfdh  
> ANOTHER FANART HEEERE AAAAA SO LOVELY THANK YOU TUBE [look at it heeere!!!](https://bubbytube.tumblr.com/post/628204881423040512/)


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benrey goes places. And Gordon is unaware. So that might cause problems but possibly not but. probably the other thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW SORRY had a. week. i had a week. was it two? two weeks. BUT ITS HERE NOW... SO YEAH.  
> ok enjoy

Benry pulled the door closed behind them, hand tightly clutching the coins in their pocket. They squinted in the harsh sunlight, although it wasn’t nearly as overpowering with these eyes, it was still plenty bright.

It was past morning now, the sun high-ish in the sky, and only now was Benry aware of just how many ways this could turn out poorly. They heard a _click_ from the door as it met the doorframe.

Benry turned around to look at it. Oh... maybe they should have left some sort of note, for Gordon, just in case he woke up early… they grabbed the door handle and twisted it, but was met with resistance. They frowned, pulling their other hand out of their pocket to yank on the door with both, but in their haste forgot about what they were holding. Their collection of coins fell to the ground around them, bouncing and scattering around their feet and into the surrounding bushes. They let out a sharp huff of irritation, glaring at them and yanking one last time on the door.

It didn’t budge. They kicked it for good measure, stubbing their toe. Ouch.

Did it lock behind them? They scanned the door for any sort of lock-lookin’-thing… maybe the weird squiggly hole there, under the handle. Gordon had put a key in that thing earlier, right? He was probably unlocking it. Duh.

Benry peered at it, trying to determine if they could jimmy a claw in there and maybe cheese it open. Examining it from all angles, they reached out and stuck a claw in the lock-

Or at least they tried to, but quickly realized that they didn’t currently _have_ claws. Their blunt human finger met the unforgiving metal with a light _thunk_.

Well. Guess that was it, then.

They’d be back before Gordon woke up anyway! Just like they’d said.

Benry turned around, head held high, before realizing they’d just lost most of their money, stooping to pick up the ones scattered around their feet. Some were lost in the bushes framing the house, and a few had fallen through the wooden slats of the porch and landed onto the ground below. They twinkled at him, taunting them. Benry stuck their tongue out at them, opening their hand and counting the ones they still held. Holding on to things was a lot more… not _difficult_ , but inconvenient, without the webbed fingers. At least they still had a few monies left. Four monies was probably enough, right? They were the bigger ones, they didn’t fit through the cracks in the wood. Obviously superior.

Before Benry could second guess themselves any further, they tentatively took the few steps to the gate, glancing around. The neighborhood looked much the same as it had earlier, lots of very similar-looking buildings spaced out in exact measurements, cars, fences. Very artificial. Some of the cars parked in front of the other houses had seemingly... disappeared. He wasn’t sure where they’d gone, but that was none of his concern. Benry was on a _mission_.

They weren’t sure how long a shopping trip was _supposed_ to take, but figured they should probably get a move on if they wanted it to be done in seven hours or less.

They forced themselves to move past the property line, coins gripped extra-hard in their hand, as to not drop them again, picking a direction and going that way. Moving down a step, their feet met the warm asphalt. It was almost nice, not blistering yet, although if the sun was out for much longer they might have to walk somewhere else to avoid scorching their bare feet.

They watched their feet, careful not to trip on anything, brushing away the hair that fell into their face. Humans made these roads, right? Why make them a material that heats up all nice and toasty-warm like this, and then insist on wearing shoes? Weird.

They puzzled this out as they walked, their paranoia taking a backseat in their mind as they mused over the many odd and strange contradictions of humans. Their uneven bangs kept falling in the way, so they took off the hair tie, tying them back. Before this, they’d not really cared about all the confusion surrounding humans, their culture and technology. He had his PSP, and that was basically all he needed. If there was something that was _really_ nagging at them, they’d ask Coomer about it, but most human shit he just did _not_ care enough about to try and figure out.

But…

Gordon was human.

And suddenly Benry found themselves caring a whole lot more.

He had quite a few questions for Dr. Coomer, when they met up with him again.

They’d put up with having legs ( _and terrible eyes, and terrible ears, and no claws, and -_ ) for a little while longer.

They picked at their flat teeth, thinking. Maybe they should make a list? Gordon probably had something to write with at his house, maybe -

They were interrupted by a loud screech from behind them that they couldn’t identify (tires?), whipping around to be met with a drawn-out blaring noise and twin lights shone in their face.

They frowned, pinning their headfins back (wait, no, he didn’t have those right now, so nothing happened) and raised their free hand in front of his eyes to shield them from the light. The spaces between the fingers did a _shit_ job blocking it, however.

The man in the car was gesturing sharply with one hand, and might’ve been saying something, it was hard to tell through the tinted glass.

Well, if this guy wanted to talk to him, it was only polite to respond. Benry slowly removed the hand from in front of their eyes, waving it hesitantly.

The guy continued to gesture, smacking the steering wheel and shouting. Benry tilted his head. Maybe he was supposed to respond verbally? He could use some directions, maybe this guy knew where the nearest store was.

Benry made his way over to the side the man was on, tapping on the window with a claw- no, finger.

As soon as he approached the window though, the man’s eyes widened and his mouth snapped shut. He turned towards the road quickly and the machine roared to life, zooming past him at an alarming speed before Benry even had the chance to get close.

Hm. Benry frowned. Maybe he did that wrong?

...more questions for Dr. Coomer, possibly.

Well, that’s fine then. He’d make it there eventually.

He glanced down at the coins in his hand to make sure he didn’t lose any of them, catching sight of his greyish skin. Although it wasn’t _quite_ the color they were used to, it still couldn’t be passed off as an average human skin color. Were there any other obvious tells he was unaware of?

They looked around nervously. There wasn’t anyone nearby, so nobody was giving them any funny looks yet, but they didn’t exactly have anything to -

A thought occurred to them. He _did_ have a disguise!

He pulled up his hood.

Perfect.

Now that Benry was essentially incognito, they were good to go, and they continued down the road at a quicker pace. There didn’t seem to be any more cars headed their way, so they didn’t bother getting out of the street.

Eventually, the houses gave way to busier roads, marginally, and Benry kept an eye out for any store-looking buildings. They weren’t sure _exactly_ what they were looking for, but the one with lots of big windows caught their eye, so they headed towards it. They made sure no cars were coming before they crossed the street, this time.

There were some sun-bleached signs plastered to the front-facing windows, one of them proclaimed “HOURS” followed by a list of numbers, words and other symbols, all in neat little rows.

...Benry was pretty sure that hours happened at _all_ times, regardless of what this sign said, but they weren’t going to judge. If someone felt like putting in the effort to put up a big sign that was just going to get destroyed by the sun, well. That was probably more _stupid human business_.

He pushed on the door, and it rattled but didn't open. They leaned some of their weight against it, causing it to creak ominously. The cashier, who had previously been distracted with something and he didn’t recognize, raised his head quickly to look at them, fumbling to put something away.

Shit, he was trying to keep a low profile. Benry extracted themself from the door, examining it for a moment before _pulling_ on it this time. Success!

They slipped through the door, under the watchful gaze of the cashier. Benry wasn’t sure what he was staring at, considering they had the perfect human disguise, but whatever.

They glanced around at the shelves near the door, then the nearest aisles, and finally by the cashier’s counter, not finding anything along the lines of ‘PSP charger’.

Well, he could always ask.

Benry recounted the coins in their hand again, one two three four. Cool.

The cashier continued to stare (Benry couldn’t pin down what kind of expression that was…) as he approached, holding out the money in front of him.

“hey uhh. i got this. trade?” Benry picked them up one at a time, gently placing them onto the counter between them and sliding them towards the guy. “PSP charger, please thank you, the black one? the black one.” He folded his hands together. That was polite to do.

The guy, he had to be a teenager or something, swallowed nervously (it was probably a nervous expression, Benry guessed) and poked at the identical coins. “Uhm. Well. Th- That’s - unfortunately that’s not? Something that we have in stock, um. Here. Dollar general?” He paused, maybe waiting for some sort of recognition from him. Benry didn’t say anything in return, hoping he would maybe explain.

The cashier seemed to be unsure how to continue, dragging a coin from one end of the counter to the other. He still seemed on edge, but pressed on, “so… we have a promotion going on for - “

“but i said please? do the stocks reset? can you reset the match for me, i need it though.”

The cashier sighed, “we don’t have those, unfortunately. You have a dollar, here. So you could get - “

“four dollars? i have four dollars here, see look at them please?” Benry pushed the other three coins closer to the man, maybe he forgot about them. “four of them.” They attempted a smile, but that just made the guy flinch, so they relented after a moment.

“No that’s - one dollar, sorry.”

Benry pouted. Either this guy couldn’t count, or the human money system was just as fucked up as some of the other human… rules. Systems.

“this is bullshit. can i have this can of uh…” he grabbed the nearest bottle of something, placing it gently next to the coins. (Tommy liked soda, and he’d not had the chance to try any yet. This one looked like water except it had some name that was not water.) “this juicey juice. as compensation.”

“I’m - well, that’s… not going to be enough, that’s - that’s got tax on it, though.”

Benry made a face. “ew what is that, get it off.”

“...”

Benry waited, searching the man’s face for some sort of response.

Oh wait, manners important. “...please?”

“I - I. Hm.“ The guy floundered, it looked like he was trying to decide what to say, eventually deflating, shaking his head.

“You know what, it’s fine. I can… scrounge up a quarter. Somewhere.” He waved them off, sweeping the coins off the counter and into the till. “So. Thanks.” He said tightly.

Benry waved with his free hand, distracted by attempting to read the label as they headed towards the door. Non-caffeinated? Hm. They weren’t sure what that meant.

They kicked the door open with their foot gently (they weren’t about to stub their toes again, that hurt a lot), stopping in the shade just outside.

“wait hold on i- “ They spun around at the click of the door, watching the same cashier quickly duck out of sight. Did he lock it behind him?

Benry deflated a bit. “...didn’t get my charger.”

And he didn’t even have any money left. Fuck.

Maybe it was time to head back then? They started in one direction -

Wait. Was that where he came from?

He blinked, slowing to a stop. Maybe it was… no? That way, probably, but he didn’t recognize that mailbox there…

They spun around again. Both ways down the road looked the same. And Gordon had no idea where they were.

Well.

This might be a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> maybe will slow down... said that before but... yeah I'm not sure  
> okay thank you  
> EDIT: THERE'S MORE ART... CRIES THANK YOU @heynowimalooser for this lovely mer!benrey i love them... [look at it here!!!](https://heynowimalooser.tumblr.com/post/629570450253561856/) :>


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benrey's still lost out on tha town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god it's been ages but a quick recap: Benrey got themselves lost, Gordon is snoozing... that's it. alright cool ty

Benry stood there for… a time.

Thinking.

Prior to now, the merperson hadn’t deemed it necessary to keep track of time, for the most part. Past “the sun will be setting soon,” or “the beach will be crowded with people for a bit longer,” or “their PSP will survive not being plugged in for one more level, probably,” time was something they simply did not care to keep an eye on.

So they weren’t sure how long they ended up standing there, anxiously clenching the bottle of soda in one hand.

If Benry currently possessed claws, the bottle would probably have a new set of holes along one side.

Their eyes scanned the surrounding area, searching for any sort of clue on which way to go, either back to the lab, or back to Gordon’s. The road looked the same both ways, asphalt stretching out of sight around the corner. The buildings were so similar, tall and box shaped. Why did everything look the same?

Benry’d been lost before, of course. As a young mer he was prone to spacing out, wandering off, not paying attention and lagging behind. It was something he’d come to accept, as a guppy. His caretakers had found this beyond frustrating, and while nothing too bad ended up coming from it, he was a constant stress on them. He’d always found his way back eventually, thankfully. No thanks to them.

It’d been quite a while since then, though. In the last few years, Benry had stuck close to this town and its surrounding beaches, the warm weather and relative safety in numbers keeping them from straying too far. They knew the area like the back of their hand, they could probably swim it with their eyes closed, able to pinpoint their location through smell and sound, by sensing the fluctuations in the currents.

Underwater, at least.

But now... Benry scuffed a bare foot against the ground. Everything smelled different up here. Nobody was looking for them. And they had no idea where they were.

Alright. Focus.

Benry let out a sharp breath and looked around again, with renewed purpose. If nothing around here was familiar, they’d have to find something that  _ was. _ They figured it didn’t make a difference which way they went, so Benry picked a direction and went with it. They didn’t have any more money, so hopefully that wouldn’t be a problem.

He walked for a little ways, buildings giving way to more identical buildings. Some of them had signs, letters, or pictures on them, but Benry didn’t care to read them. It was starting to get hot out, the borrowed sweater sticking to their shoulders. They debated whether to keep their hood up or risk getting noticed, and the latter eventually won out.

Benry worried their lip as they walked. Come to think of it, there was no way they would even recognize Gordon’s house if they  _ did _ stumble across it. For all Benry knew, they could have passed it already. It wasn’t as if there was a sign on the front saying ‘Gordon lives here’.

It continued to get hotter as the minutes went on. Benry’s feet started to hurt. These things sucked, with a tail they could swim for miles, but these things got tired after what, like, an hour? Lame.

Benry wasn’t sure what they were looking for, really. If all else failed, they supposed they could just go back into the ocean.

They’d try their luck for a little while longer, though. Just in case.

-

Bubby grumbled under his breath as the machine let out a harsh beep, refusing to accept his card, on the  _ third _ swipe no less! Rolling his eyes, he shoved the card in his pocket, pulling out his debit card, but in the process managed to snag the rest of them, and they all tumbled out onto the linoleum around him. He swore, probably louder than necessary as it caused a nearby family to look over at him, and he shut his mouth and began picking up the mess.

He tried to hide the way his hands shook. Today just couldn’t get any better.

Tommy had informed Bubby (and his husband) that they’d been found out. Well, that Benry had been found out, and Benry wasn’t exactly the best person to be trusted with secrets.

Out of all of them, Bubby had always suspected that Benry would be the one to spill the metaphorical beans.

According to Tommy, Gordon  _ seemed _ trustworthy. Bubby wasn’t so sure, though. Although he wasn’t there for the conversation itself, he could imagine how it probably went. Someone threatening Gordon, followed by the scientist saying anything he thought was necessary to be spared.

Tommy might be plenty intelligent, and he might  _ mean _ well, but Bubby knew he could be naive, and a little too trusting. Bubby was the one who knew how humans were, how they had no qualms with taking advantage of those traits.

Goddamnit, this was a shitshow. With numb fingers he paid for the rest of his groceries and left the store quickly.

Even now, Gordon could have already done a number of things. Said something on social media, said something to a townsfolk, said something to  _ Black Mesa _ . Fuck.

Bubby didn’t know the guy that well yet, so even if he confronted Gordon about it, who’s to say he wouldn’t lie directly to his face?

There were so many variables. There was so much he didn’t know, and couldn’t account for. He needed a game plan. He’d need to talk it over with Coomer. He’d need to-

He knocked shoulders against someone as he passed them, pulling him out of his spiralling thoughts a little bit. Almost too late muttering an absent apology at the same time as them. He hurried away, an iron grip on the grocery bags in one hand, but the person continued.

“sorry man, i didn’t- oh yo, bubby, thankgodholy  _ fuck _ my feet hurt like hell.”

Bubby stopped at the familiar voice, turning to face them. Although they didn’t look exactly as he had last seen them, the person in front of him was unmistakably Benry.

“Wh- Benry, what the-“ He stood there, looking him up and down. Although Bubby had many questions (What the fuck are you doing out of the ocean? Why are you wandering around town in plain daylight? Why did you put all of us in danger by revealing yourself?) the first thing that ended up coming out of his mouth was:

“Where the fuck did you get those clothes?”

Benry shut their mouth, pulling at the sweater clinging to their shoulders. “uhh this’s gordon’s. stole it. anyway can you like. make me not lost? i feel like i've been here for hours or something. i left my PSP at gordon’s house if you don’t mind getting me over there maybe?” They fiddled with their ponytail as they spoke, a guilty smile creeping onto their face.

Bubby paused, digesting this new information. “...You’re staying at Gordon’s house.” He ended up saying, raising an eyebrow.

“yeah it’s not a big deal i swear. don’t look into it haha.”

Benry physically said the words ‘haha’ out loud, for whatever reason.

Bubby grit his teeth and looked away, thinking. He still didn’t think it was a smart idea to trust Gordon this much, and while normally he would be fine with letting Benry make his own decisions, there was a very real chance that Benry’s recklessness would cause problems for all of them.

Well. They could decide once they made it to the car.

Bubby sighed dramatically, jerking his head towards the parking lot. He held out some of the grocery bags for Benry to carry. If Benry was going to be a nuisance, he could at least help with this much.

They made their way out to the parking lot without attracting too much suspicion, despite the way Bubby eyed everyone they passed. Did they know? Had Gordon told them? Did they suspect anything just by looking at the two of them?

“man, you gotta calm down, people are gonna start looking.”

“Oh really, Benry?” Bubby snapped, not stopping or looking back. “You’re asking  _ me _ to not be suspicious?”

He heard Benry’s steps slow for a moment, before rushing to keep up again. Bubby said nothing as he opened the trunk of the car and deposited the bags, a bit forcefully.  _ Crunch, _ went some of the eggs, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

He stood aside so Benry could do the same, albeit with a little more care.

They both got in the car without words.

Bubby sat in the driver’s seat, tapping his fingers on his opposite arm. He didn’t put the keys in the ignition.

After a few moments of Benry refusing to look at him, Bubby sighed, rubbing his head. He could get explosive at times, and that would lead them nowhere.

“I just. Don’t.  _ Understand  _ why you would put us all at risk like that.” Bubby began, trying  _ very hard _ to not show that he was gritting his teeth. Oh, how he wanted to chew him out. Just to  _ really drive home _ how much of a big deal this was.

Benry looked at where Bubby was tapping on his own arm, not quite up to meeting his eyes yet. They began, surprisingly serious considering how they normally acted, “i fucked up, yeah. ‘m sorry. i-”

“You’re damn right you fucked up! Goddamnit Benry, it’s only been a  _ month _ since the guy got here!” Bubby spit, pinning them with a hard stare. So much for keeping his cool. “You’re lucky we’re not being dissected and - and torn apart already. And then I find you wandering around town, just  _ by yourself _ ? How do you know you weren’t followed? What the fuck were you  _ thinking _ , use your goddamn head, for  _ once _ !” 

Benry toyed with their ponytail again, lips pulling to the side in a grimace. They took a few false starts before he got the words out, in a begrudgingly apologetic tone, “okay i know you’re mad ‘n all but i already got yelled at by the gordon and it went basically the same as this so like i  _ get _ it and i’m gonna be more careful ‘n stuff.”

“It doesn’t  _ matter _ if you’re going to be careful from now on, it’s already - already -” Bubby’s ranting stuttered to a stop, taken off guard by what he was hearing. His hand slowly released the iron grip he had on his arm, as he deflated, thrown for a loop at this new information. “...Gordon was yelling at you?”

“tch. yeah.” Benry sulked, sinking into the passenger seat. They grabbed the strings on their hoodie, pulling it tight around their face so that Bubby could only see the end of their ponytail sticking out. Benry was muffled as they continued. “w’s bein’ reckless. deserved it. whatever.”

Bubby scowled at Benry, although there wasn’t much ire behind it anymore. He only held it for a few seconds before finally putting the key in the ignition.

There was much to think about.

“Well.” Bubby started, words measured and decidedly  _ not _ angry. “If you think that Gordon...  _ really _ cares enough about your well-being to chew you out about this kind of thing...”

He did  _ not _ meet Benry's eyes as they carefully pulled back their hood with an almost hopeful look. Bubby did  _ not _ look, he kept his eyes on the road.

“...then maybe there’s hope for us after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bubby saves the day wahoo!
> 
> Bubby would normally shoplift maybe but he’s trying to keep a low profile i guess
> 
> Anotha mer!benrey art from me but it's old now lmao (yes i can draw the same thing over and over again. we exist) [look at it here!](https://123gordon.tumblr.com/post/630643319995842561/)  
> And!!! AND!!! ANOTHER ART!!! BOOM BAM ITS A BUNCH AND REAL COOL THANK YOU PINKAPOCALYPSE [look at it here!](https://pink-apocalypse.tumblr.com/post/634372995707715584/)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos or comment if you want, they are like sweet kisses to my brain
> 
> FANART SHOWCASE HERE WOAHHH:  
> If your art is not in the fanart showcase, I have not seen it! Feel free to @me or dm me on Tumblr (@nbtuna) or Twitter (@tunyahghost) because I would LOVE to see it thank you <3  
> @too_because (Adyn) ([Twitter](https://twitter.com/too_because/status/1286281097844752384?s=20))  
> One from my beta reader! ([Discord Attachment](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/726209731076685920/738120520293417032/image0.jpg?width=535&height=535))  
> @samosadude (Samosa) ([Discord Attachment](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/513226838827335680/740009073268752505/unknown.png))  
> @Frostios (Sara) ([Discord Attachment](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/740076278174187552/740112168565080076/doob.png)) (In the top right!)  
> @Bubbytube (Tube) ([Tumblr](https://bubbytube.tumblr.com/post/628204881423040512/))  
> @heynowimalooser ([Tumblr](https://heynowimalooser.tumblr.com/post/629570450253561856/))  
> @pinkapocalypse ([Tumblr](https://pink-apocalypse.tumblr.com/post/634372995707715584/))
> 
> ART BY ME:  
> Mer!Benrey! ([Tumblr](https://tunascribbles.tumblr.com/post/622759023256731648/)) ([Twitter](https://twitter.com/tunyahghost/status/1285361343344766977?s=20))  
> Mer!Benrey... 2!!! ([Tumblr](https://tunascribbles.tumblr.com/post/624417329613307904/merbenrey-from-my-fic-fish-boyfriend-in-my)) ([Twitter](https://twitter.com/tunyahghost/status/1286395375679467521?s=20))


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